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| Opens up the possibility of using brine from desalination plants | The last doctoral thesis defended at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) proposes to use a hydrometallurgical technique that would allow the recovery of mineral residues from the Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión.
The research work opens up the possibility of using brines from desalination plants using leaching techniques with agitation, using acids that attack the residue to dissolve it.In this way, an attempt is made to recover a high percentage of metal in low-grade minerals such as those found in the waste basins.
The thesis 'Optimization of parameters for the extraction of elements from minerals in acidic media' has been defended telematically by the professor at the Catholic University of Northern Chile, Norman Toro Villarroel.The research work, directed by Emilio Trigueros, from the Department of Mining and Civil Engineering, and Manuel Cánovas, graduated from the Polytechnic, who is currently a professor at the Universidad Católica del Norte de Chile.
“A hydrometallurgy process is used, specifically acid leaching of minerals to extract metals,” explain the directors of the doctoral thesis.
Toro Villarroel has tested various experiments on manganese oxides and copper sulfides, altering the process parameters, such as temperature, additives, acid concentration and time, among others, to know which parameters are critical and how they can be scaled to provide of an industrial process.Norman Toro has carried out the tests for the last 3 years in Antofagasta, a port city and regional capital of the mining area of ??the Atacama desert, in northern Chile.
The results are «very interesting and promising, since the acid concentration is shown to play a lower incidence than the presence of additives such as reducing oxides or chlorides.We work with the waste water from the desalination plants and the waste can be used as by-products in other processes, "explain the directors.
The importance of these results for the UPCT lies "in the possibility of using these agitation leaching techniques to recover metals from the waste disseminated by the Sierra Minera (sterile flotation rafts and mineral deposits and accumulations), for which they must adapt those pilot tests and carry them out here », clarify Trigueros and Cánovas.
Source: UPCT
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