Nifty - Hydrometallurgy in the Sand Dunes

J N West1 and J W Connor2

ABSTRACT concentrated copper sulphate solution is then passed into an

electrowinning tankhouse where the copper is recovered as high
Nifty Copper Operations was established to treat a copper orebody purity metal cathode. Design criteria of NCO is detailed in Table 1.
situated in the East Pilbara area of North West WA, located approximately
70 km west of Telfer in the Great Sandy Desert. The plant was designed
to treat the oxidised portion of the orebody with underground TABLEl
development following at a later date. Nifty was designed to produce 16 Nifty Copper Operations stage 1 design parameters.
500 tpa of copper cathode. This will increase with treatment of the
chalcopyrite ore (underground resource).
Ore processing is similar to other operations of this type but has its PARAMETER AMOUNT
unique challenges. Problems discussed are: fine clay minerals which Cathode PrOduction 16 500 tonnes I year
hinder percolation; oxidation of organic by manganese in the electrolyte; HeaD Cell Dimensions 200mx 50mx6m
crud formation by clays; third phase emulsions; and organic carryover
into the electrowinning tankhouse. Irrigation Rate 15L/h/m2
As the orebody utilisation progresses, some sulphide material will PLS Grade 7.8!!/L Cu
require leaching and further investigations into liquor chemistry. PLS Flowrate 300 m31 h
Orl!anic Flowrate 300m3 /h
INTRODUCTION SXRecoverv 90%
Stron!! Electrolvte Grade 50 !!/LCu
Nifty Copper Operations (NCO) is situated in Western Australia
Weak Electrolvte Grade 35 "/LCu
and is approximately 400 km SE of Port Hedland. NCO began
Stron!! Electrolvte Flowrate 147m3 /h
production in October 1993 and Stage 1 had initial design life of
ten years. The Stage 1 open cut mine life has been extended to Current Densitv 280 A/m2
12 years. .
The operation is a heap leach/solvent extractionlelectrowinning
plant designed to produce 16 500 tonnes per annum of copper
cathode. Design ore grade is 3.2 per cent Cu and the major ore HEAP LEACH CIRCUIT
minerals are malachite and azurite with minor cuprite, tenorite,
chalcocite and native copper. The chalcopyrite primary sulphide The original heap leach section of the operation was made up of
ore body (23 million tonnes at 3.4 per cent Cu) has not been eight cells with the dimensions: length 200 m, width 50 m, and
included in the above mine life. height 6 m (Pad 1). Stacking of crushed ore was by tipping from
dump trucks and then ripping the surface which was compressed
The 'oxide' portion of the orebody is made up of two types:
by tramming of the trucks during the stacking process. Ore was
malachite - azurite in a silica matrix (silicified carbonate). initially crushed to -25 mm, then -40 mm and later to a nominal
malachite - azurite in an oxidised shale zone with extensive 100 mm. The change to a larger rock size was made to reduce
friable clay minerals. the amount of fine material that was adversely affecting the
A number of challenges have presented themselves both permeability of the heap. Unfortunately, this proved to be
technically and through the location of the mine site and have unsuccessful. Testwork was undertaken to minimise the effect of
prevented the plant from operating at nameplate capacity on a the fines which reduced the heap permeability and caused
consistent basis. A number of the issues have been addressed. A slumping of the heap. The ramifications of the percolation
number still remain and are being addressed, particularly heap problems will be discussed later in this paper.
leach operation and solvent extraction operation, during the Irrigation of the first two cells was done with drippers and the
winter months and after episodes of heavy rains. remaining six heaps were irrigated with wobbler sprinklers. The
change in irrigation equipment was made because of the need to
THE PROCESS increase the evaporation rate of water in the leach liquor. Heavy
precipitation in the wet season resulted in a surplUS of water in
The metallurgical process for recovering copper from the ore is a
the leach circuit which had to be removed. Furthermore, the
'conventional' H2S04 leach/solvent extractionlelectrowinning
wobbler sprinklers were found to require less maintenance than
plant. Commercial copper solvent extraction processes are
described by Townson and Severs (1990). the original dripper system.
Crushed 'ore is stacked into heaps which are irrigated with When a new cell was brought on-line, the raffinate was dosed
dilute sulphuric acid which dissolve the copper 'carbonate' with concentrated sulphuric acid resulting in an initial irrigation
minerals. This copper rich liquor is then treated in a solvent acid concentration of approx 50gll. This is no longer practised
extraction circuit which simultaneously removes deleterious because of an excess of acid in the leach liquor and the lower
impurities and upgrades the copper concentration. The than expected acid consumption of the crushed ore.
The poor permeability of the cells resulted in low throughput
of leach liquor and low leachate copper tenors because of
1. Metallurgical Manager, Nifty Copper Operation, PO Box 7001, channelling within the cells. This poor permeability of the heap
Cloisters Square WA 6850. was attributed to the large amounts of kaolinite and muscovite
fines associated with the ore. Selective mining of the silicified
2. MRACI, Development Metallurgist, Nifty Copper Operation, carbonate ore from the shale hosted ore was not possible. Thus,
PO Box 7001, Cloisters Square WA 6850. alternative leach treatment methods had to be found to ensure the
viability of the operation.

The AuslMM Annual Conference Perth, 24 - 28 March 1996 181

J WEST AND J CONNOR

1\vo options were examined: SOLVENT EXTRACTION CIRCUIT

1. desliming or screening the ore and separately leaching the The solvent extraction (SX) circuit is configured with two extract
fines. stages in series and two strip stages in series. Separating the
2. agglomerating the fines onto -25 mm substrate ore and extract and strip trains is a single organic wash stage. The five
treating the agglomerates on the heap. stages are all Krebs mixer-settler units. Current operating
It was considered that the latter option would provide the conditions for the solvent extraction section of the plant are listed
quickest fix as a tailings dam was not needed. However, testwork in Table 2.
on the former option continued as a contingency if agglomeration Solvent extraction was commissioned at -50 per cent design
was found to be unsuccessful. throughput because of flow restrictions in the tankhouse. The
Agglomeration Testwork specific flowrates through the electrowinning cells were well
below design. This was not corrected until a two-week shutdown
Results of laboratory testwork indicated the following:
in May 1995. When the shutdown was completed the solvent
1. The Nalco anionic flocculant Optimer 9960 was an effective extraction circuit was started up at design throughput.
binder for a range of silicified carbonate/shale ore blends. During the past two years there have been many problems
2. The optimum dosage of Optimer 9960 varied from 600 g/t which have adversely affected throughput. The first significant
to 800 g/t depending on the blend ratio and moisture content metallurgical problem encountered was the partial degradation of
of the blend. the organic by permanganate in the electrolyte. This
permanganate originated from an accidental carry-over of
3. . The water used for surfactant dilution must be low in iron pregnant leach solution (PLS) into the strip stage. The Mn(H)
content ([Fe)<l mg/ml) and neutral pH. However, after was oxidised to Mn(VII) in the tankhouse, and the resultant
curing, the acidic leach solution does not adversely affect Mn04' species oxidised some of the hydroxyoxime extractant to
the agglomerated ore. produce surfactants. These surfactants caused a large increase in
4. A blend of fines with a small rock substrate was preferable phase disengagement times (PDT) and organic carry-over into the
to forming balls containing fines only. electrowinning cells. Steps taken to minimise the effects were: a
drastic reduction in SX flows; addition of ferrous sulphate to the
5. Acid pre-curing of agglomerated ore should be investigated. electrolyte so that the total Fe concentration was -1.2 g/L; and
The laboratory experiments culminated in a large scale column contacting the organic with activated clay (Englehard F20). The
test with seven tonne of ore. Dimensions of the column were one Fe(lI) reduces the Mn(V1I) species to Mn(lI) and the clay adsorbs
metre in diameter and six metres tall. A blend of 35 per cent w/w the surfactant impurities that are in the organic. It took many
of shale hosted ore and 65 per cent w/w of silicified ore crushed months of continuing these steps before the organic was
to minus 25 mm and agglomerated with 700 g/t of flocculant was regenerated to an acceptable condition where the throughput
used. Results from this column test confirmed that the could be increased.
agglomeration option would greatly improve the leaching Another problem encountered in the early days of Nifty's
characteristics of the heaps. operation was the generation of crud in the mixer settlers. This
An agglomeration drum and radial stacker with associated crud was caused by the fine clay minerals entering the SX circuit
with the PLS. The crud can slow phase disengagement in the
conveyers is currently being leased and used to produce the first
settlers and in severe cases it may result in high levels of
heap of agglomerated ore. This first heap will be an eight metre
lift on top on cell 7 on Pad 1. entrainment and organic losses. Crud at Nifty was analysed and
found to contain clay minerals (from elemental and XRD
Pad 2, which is currently under construction will consist of analyses). The significant crud 'events' occurred when a new
four cells (ie cells 9, 10, 11 and 12 ), with each cell having a base heap cell was commissioned or immediately after rainfall. At
area of 25 m x 400 m. The height of the stack will be determined Nifty the crud was removed from the SX circuit by pumping it
by the damage inflicted on the agglomerated pellets upon falling out from the interface near the weir, or later, by 'flipping' El and
from the stacker. It is expected that the height of the cell will be E2 mixer continuities which forced it into the raffinate stream.
between six and nine metres. Other changes incorporated into. Experimental work is currently underway to treat cruds utilising
Pad 2 are: plastic liners which are 0.5 mm thicker than Pad 1; the organic clay treatment circuit.
two drainage trenches for pregnant leach solution (PLS) and One of the most puzzling problems encountered was the
intermediate leach solution (ILS); 750 mm screened permeable appearance of a very stable third phase emulsion which contained
fill on top of the liner; and 100 mm diameter drainage pipes at 2 no crystalline material, ie no clay minerals. This third phase
m intervals. Irrigation of Pad 2 will be by wobbler sprinklers on (-150 mm in depth) would lie between the top organic layer and
top and drippers on the side. the bottom aqueous layer in the Wash and Extract settlers. The
emulsion contained approximately equal amounts of aqueous and

TABLE 2
October 1995 solvent extraction operating conditions.

81 82 E2 El Wash
Continuity 0 A A A A
Entrainment A in 0 (% v/v) <0.7 <0.3 <0.4 <0.2 <1.0
Entrainment 0 in A (oom) <50 . - <50 - -
PDT (seconds) 280 200 160 160 150
Mixer O:A ratio 1.15 0.9 0.85 0.85 1.05
Coalescing Media Yes Yes Yes Yes No (to be added)
PLS 4.2 g / L Cu, oH = 1.1, at a flowrate -350 m3 / h
SX Recovery 90%

182 Perth, 24 28 March 1996 The AuslMM Annual Conference

 NIFfY - HYDROMETALLURGY IN THE SAND DUNES

organic when centrifuged and a pale green solid plug at the Another problem occurred when the cobalt concentration in the
liquid-liquid interface in the centrifuge tube. Analysis of the electrolyte was lowered from 130 !!glml to 80 !!g/ml. This
solid plug showed that it was made of micro-particles of caused accelerated corrosion of the lead alloy anodes resulting in
amorphous silica that apparently stabilised the emulsion. The the occlusion of lead flakes in the copper cathode. This problem
stable emulsion was only formed in the stages where PLS was overcome by raising the cobalt concentration back to 130
contacted the organic (-20 per cent v/v Acorga M5640 in Shellsol !!g/ml.
2046 diluent). A matrix of laboratory tests were performed Engineering problems in the tankhouse were:
where synthetic and plant solutions of PLS, electrolyte and
organic were contacted. The stable emulsion was generated only (a) component failure due to the incorrect selection of materials
in experiments where plant PLS was the aqueous phase. The of construction and expansion / contraction of HDPE pipes.
conclusion from the experimental work was that something in the (b) maximum flow through EW cells were half of design.
plant PLS was causing the stable third phase emulsion. These problems were corrected during the May 1995
Interestingly, tests with other aryl-hydroxyoxime extractants in shutdown.
Shellsol 2046 did not form the stable emulsion when contacted in
the laboratory with plant PLS. Thus a combination of only
Acorga M5640 and Nifty PLS would form the third phase. While CONCLUSION
more detailed testwork was being done to determine the The problems outlined in this article have resulted in the Nifty
mechanism of the third phase formation and how to combat it, the operation not being able to meet design production for the first
third phase problem disappeared. The third phase problem in the two years. These problems arose from an orebody which did not
Nifty SX plant had lasted for approximately five months in match the initial model; metallurgical testwork on
mid-1994. Laboratory testwork repeating the original unrepresentative samples (common in the mining industry); the
experiments with new plant PLS could not generate the stable location and its climate; unique engineering material property
third phase emulsion. requirements; and an under-estimation of the technical
complexities of the process. A program of continuous
ELECTROWINNING CIRCUIT improvement for the operation has resulted in increases in
cathode production. Nameplate capacity will be attained in 1996.
The problems encountered in the electrowinning (EW) circuit
were technically less complicated than those encountered in the
leaching and solvent extraction sections of the plant. With the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
exception of the organic in the tankhouse EW cells, most of the The authors would like to thank Western Mining Corporation for
problems were of an engineering nature. permission to publish this paper.
The primary metallurgical problem in the tankhouse was the
presence of organic in the electrowinning cells. This results in REFERENCES
the adhesion of the copper cathode to the stainless steel mother
plates and poor quality copper product. If the copper sheet is TOWllson, B and Severs, K J, 1990. The solvent extraction of copper - a
fastened to the stainless steel blank, then the mother plate will be perspective, Mining Magazine, January.
damaged upon removal (ie stripping) of the copper cathode sheet.
Organic in the electrolyte will also produce inferior quality
copper because of the occlusion of foreign species into the
metallic electrodeposited crystals.

The AuslMM Annual Conference Perth, 24 - 28 March 1996 183

184 Perth, 24 - 28 March 1996 The AuslMM Annual Conference