ORAL

SESSION: Non-ferrousMonAM-R1	Barrios International Symposium on Sustainable Non-ferrous Smelting and Hydro/Electrochemical Processing (5th Intl. Symp. on Sustainable Non-ferrous Smelting and Hydro/Electrochemical Processing)
Mon Oct, 23 2017	Room: Condesa II
Session Chairs: Guillermo Rios; Thomas Gonzales; Session Monitor: TBA

11:00: [Non-ferrousMonAM01]
The CESL Copper-Arsenic Process: Sustainable Processing of Enargite-Bearing Copper Concentrates
Keith Mayhew¹ ; Patricio Barrios² ; Susan Stocker¹ ; Colin Joudrie³ ; ¹Teck Resources Limited, Richmond, Canada; ²Aurubis, Hamburg, Germany (Deutschland); ³Teck Resources Limited, Vancouver, Canada;
Paper Id: 378 [Abstract]

Current practices for the processing of high-arsenic copper concentrates include: blending with large quantities of clean concentrate; roasting to produce a low-arsenic calcine; and direct smelting in a small number of custom smelters that accept arsenic-bearing concentrates. A sustainable processing alternative to process arsenic-bearing concentrates is via hydrometallurgy, including medium temperature leaching or total oxidative leaching at high temperature. The CESL Cu-As Process, a medium temperature and pressure hydrometallurgical leaching process, has achieved all operating and environment requirements in pilot and demonstration scale campaigns on several blends of high-arsenic concentrates containing up to 10% arsenic content. The benefits of the CESL Cu-As Process for processing of high-arsenic copper concentrates include >97% copper recovery to cathode coupled with >99% deportment of arsenic to stable residues with no particulate, sulphur dioxide, or liquid emissions. Short- and long-term stability tests on residue from the CESL Cu-As Process have proven the stability of arsenic in the crystalline ferric arsenates (basic ferric arsenate sulfate � �Type 2 Scorodite� � and scorodite) which presents an opportunity to sustainably and safely process high-arsenic enargite-bearing copper concentrates.