STUDIES ON THE ANODIC DISSOLUTION OF COPPER Matte.pdf

Hydrometallurgy,9 (1982) 195-204 195 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands ~. STUDIES ON THE ANODIC DISSOLUTION OF COPPER MAT1E I S.G. MEHENDALE, S. VENKATACHALAM and R. MALLIKARJUNAN Department ofMetallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (India) (Received September l,1981;accepted in revised form March 18, 1982) ABSTRACT Mehendale, S.G., Venkatachalam, S. and Mallikarjunan, R., 1982. Studies on the anodic dissolution of copper matte. Hydrometallurgy, 9: 195-204. Anodic polarisation studies on copper matte revealed that a copper matte electrode polarises abruptly in H 2 S04 selution but not in HCI solution. Anodic dissolution of copper matte was studied at various anodic potentials in 2 N solutions of HCI and H SO•• 2 It was found that at lower anodic potential (around 0.4 volt vs. saturated calOlllel elec­ trode) copper dissolves preferentially (at 90% current efficiency) over iron (8-10% C.E.), in both the acid solutions. It was further observed that this preferential dissolution of copper takes place over a longer period (about 6 h) in HCI than in H 2 S04 solution (about 3 h). Preferential dissolution of copper from copper matte was found to be independent of HCI concentration (0.5 N to 4 N). From the X-ray diffraction analysis of the origirial copper matte and electrolysed copper matte, it was established that digenite and bornite phases of copper matte dissolved causing preferential dissolution of copper. INTRODUCTION During the smelting of copper, nickel, lead and zinc sulphide concentrates large amounts of SO] are produced which m~ cause atmospheric pollution. The recovery of non-ferro