Characterization and acid leaching beneficiation studies of Anka (Zamfara State, Nigeria) copper ore deposit
Abstract
The chemical and mineralogical characterization of the Anka copper was examined and its susceptibility to H2SO4 acid leaching was assessed. A crude sample of the ore, weighing 5 kg, was sourced from the mines, communiated, homogenized, and characterised the crude sample. A 100 g fraction of the crushed sample was subjected to fractional sieve analysis and each sieve retained was chemically analysed. The leaching process was carried out on 100 g of -125+90 µm sieve size fraction using H2SO4 acid and the resulting product was chemically analyzed. The characterization result reveals 42.271% CuO using the energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and the x-ray diffractometer shows that the ore is mainly composed of Cu-carbonate hydroxide in the form of malachite mineral. The scanning electron microscope micrograph suggests that the ore contains dispersed grains of sodium aluminium silicate and copper carbonate hydroxide in a silica-dominated matrix. The ore's liberation size was determined to be at the sieve size of -125+90 μm. Finally, the ore was discovered to be responsive to the H2SO4 acid leaching operation, leading to an enrichment of the feed from 42.27% Cu to a pregnant solution of 52.51% Cu and the residue from the leaching was analyzed to be 4.69% Cu.
