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Tutorial 3

This document contains 8 questions regarding various mineral processing and metallurgical extraction techniques. The questions cover topics such as: 1) Bacterial leaching of copper sulfide ores, cyanidation waste treatment, and tank house copper electrowinning. 2) Crushing, agglomeration, and acid curing processes for heap leaching of low-grade copper ores. 3) Electrolysis of alumina to produce aluminum, including reactions and energy calculations. 4) Cementation gold recovery process, solvent extraction vs ion exchange in solution purification, and calculations for copper electrowinning.

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THABILE MUSWEDE
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89 views3 pages

Tutorial 3

This document contains 8 questions regarding various mineral processing and metallurgical extraction techniques. The questions cover topics such as: 1) Bacterial leaching of copper sulfide ores, cyanidation waste treatment, and tank house copper electrowinning. 2) Crushing, agglomeration, and acid curing processes for heap leaching of low-grade copper ores. 3) Electrolysis of alumina to produce aluminum, including reactions and energy calculations. 4) Cementation gold recovery process, solvent extraction vs ion exchange in solution purification, and calculations for copper electrowinning.

Uploaded by

THABILE MUSWEDE
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING


TCE 5207 – ADVANCED MINERALS ENGINEERING 1B
TUTORIAL 03 – 9/05/2022

Qn. 1
a) Describe the process of bacterial leaching of copper sulphide ores.

b) Cyanidation wastes are a source of environmental contamination in metallurgical


processes for gold. How best can the cyanide waste be treated?

c) With the aid of a diagram describe tank house copper electro winning practice

Qn. 2
Heap leaching is the most preferred leaching method in low grade copper leaching. Describe
the crushing, agglomeration and acid curing processes involved in the preparation of ore for the
heap leaching process.

Qn. 3
a) Aluminium is produced from bauxite by the electro-reduction of alumina. In the
electrolytic bath, aluminium gets deposited at the cathode and oxygen gets liberated at the
anode. The liberated oxygen attacks the graphite anode and forms carbon dioxide.
(i) Write the balanced reactions involved in the electrolysis of alumina.

(ii) If the electrolysis is carried out with a potential difference of 4.5 V between the two
electrodes and the current passing through the cell is 180 kA with the current efficiency of
95%. Calculate the amount of energy required for production of 100 kg of aluminium.

(iii) Calculate the rate of production of carbon dioxide per hour.

Qn. 4
a) Give a detailed description of the cementation process used in gold recovery.

b) Solution purification is an important step in the upgrading of pregnant leach solutions from
dump/heap leaching. With reference to Uranium processing compare and contrast the two
main methods used for this process i.e. Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange.
c) A copper electro-winning cell has a current of 24 000 A passing through it.
(i) Calculate the quantity of electricity, in Faradays, passed through the cell in 24 hours.
(ii) Calculate the mass of copper formed in the cell in 24 hours.

Qn. 5
The combination of different process parameters in uranium extraction creates a variety of
conditions for exploitation of ion exchange resins for uranium recovery. These conditions, in
turn, have their reflections in resin properties required for the best economic performance.
Identify and explain the three main properties that are considered when selecting resins in the
Uranium industry.

Qn. 6
a) Activated carbon adsorption of gold from cyanide leach solutions is the most preferred
method for the purification and enrichment of gold-cyanide leach solutions. Detail the
mechanism of adsorption of gold onto the activated carbon.

b) Copper is being electro won from a 1M solution onto copper cathodic starter plates. Given
the data below, what is the cathode potential necessary for plating to begin at a current density
of 300A/m2?

Half-cell reaction Eθ (V) Log (io) Tafel Slope (mV)


Cu2+ + 2e- Cu +0.34 -0.7 120

Qn. 7
a) The zinc sulphate solution obtained after leaching of zinc from zinc oxide contains impurities
that are detrimental to electrolysis. In the ZINCOR process these impurities are removed in
three stages, with the aid of a flow diagram describe the three stages.

b) Give a detailed description of titanium extraction using the Kroll process, your description
should include;
(i) Diagram
(ii) Operation
(iii) Reactions
(iv) Products

c) With reference to ‘multi-lift’ heaps, give detail on the heap construction, your description
should include the base, ore placement, aeration, solution application and pregnant solution
collection
Qn. 8
a) A current of 0.511 amp was used to deposit nickel at the cathode of an electrochemical cell
for 672s. The electrolyte used was NiSO4 (aq), calculate the mass of nickel metal deposited.

b) Describe in detail the carbonate leaching of uranium ores and its subsequent recovery
process.
c) The Zadra elution process is the most widely used method for the recovery of gold from the
carbon in pulp process. With the aid of a diagram describe the Zadra elution process.

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