Technical Articles

A leaching recovery calculation tells you, in one number, how much of the metal in the feed actually dissolved and reported to solution — for a typical copper oxide heap, a well-run operation extracts 75–90% of the copper and a gold CIL circuit 85–92% of the gold. This guide sets out the three standard accounting…

By the Lexin Hydromet Process Engineering Team Acid consumption in copper leaching is usually the largest reagent cost in an oxide-copper operation, and it is also the most frequently misread number on the monthly report. When dosage drifts past roughly 40–60 kilograms (kg) of sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) per tonne (t) of ore while copper tenor…

Last updated: 2026-10-19 · By the Lexin Hydromet Process Engineering Team Tank leaching vs heap leaching is the first flowsheet decision for any ore body that responds to acid or cyanide, because it fixes recovery, capital expenditure (CAPEX) and schedule before a single vessel or liner is ordered. A tank circuit typically recovers 10–25 percentage…

By the Lexin Hydromet Process Engineering Team Effective leaching tank design starts with residence time: at 45–55% solids (w/w), a 24-hour leach processing 500 t/d (551 short t/d) of ore demands roughly 700 m³ (24,700 ft³) of working slurry volume — most economically supplied by two or three mechanically agitated tanks in series, each fitted…

Last updated: 2026-10-18 · Reviewed by: Senior Metallurgical Engineer, {BRAND} Hydrometallurgy is the branch of extractive metallurgy that recovers metals from ores, concentrates and recycled materials using aqueous chemistry — leaching, solution purification and metal recovery — instead of high-temperature smelting. It is not a niche route: the majority of the world’s zinc and uranium…

Last updated: 2026-10-18 · Reviewed by: Senior Metallurgical Engineer, {BRAND} A mechanical vapour recompression evaporator crystallizer typically evaporates water at 15–30 kWh of electricity per tonne of water, whereas a four-effect steam train consumes 0.35–0.6 t of steam per tonne evaporated (typical ranges; basis: 5–10 t/h water duty, brine boiling point rise 5–8 K, saturated…

Last updated: 2026-10-18 · Reviewed by: Senior Metallurgical Engineer, {BRAND} A single well-designed solvent extraction stage transfers 90–95% of the target metal out of the aqueous feed in one pass, and organic inventory typically runs 0.6–1.0 m³ of organic for every m³/h of aqueous feed treated — a capital line comparable to the contactors themselves….

Last updated: 2026-10-18 · Reviewed by: Senior Metallurgical Engineer, {BRAND} A 50,000 t/d copper concentrator circulates roughly 120,000 m³/d of process water, and correct staging of solid liquid separation is what allows 85–90% of it to be recycled rather than discharged (typical range for a modern plant with thickening, filtration and dry-stack tailings). The equipment…

Last updated: 2026-10-18 · Reviewed by: Senior Metallurgical Engineer, {BRAND} Leaching recovers 70–85% of the copper in a typical oxide ore with dilute sulphuric acid and 85–92% of the gold in a well-run CIL circuit, which is why it anchors most hydrometallurgical flowsheets. This pillar page compares the four industrial routes — agitated tank, heap,…

Last updated: 2026-10-17 · Reviewed by: Senior Metallurgical Engineer, {BRAND} A 20,000 t/y copper cathode SX-EW plant built alongside a new heap leach operation costs roughly USD 55–85 million, which is USD 2,700–4,200 per annual tonne of cathode capacity, and runs at USD 1,400–2,100 per tonne cash cost before by-product credits. Within that cash cost,…