Study of Alternatives for Early Addition of Chloride in Leaching

The advances made in Chile in recent years in chloride leaching of copper, have allowed an important development of projects, where the benefits of higher extraction, faster kinetics and lower consumption of sulfuric acid for secondary sulphide’s, led the Radomiro Tomic Division (DRT) to request PA Engineering a study to develop and identify the modifications needed for the early addition of chloride to a Primary Leaching process.

For the development of this engineering, the business plan and the characteristics of the ore that will enter the plant in 2024 were considered, which projects a decrease in the solubility of copper, so it is necessary to develop this study to review the incorporation of chloride in the short term and thus improve the projected recovery of copper.

Given the above, PA Engineering performed the engineering to design the chloride addition system in the form of brine and a preliminary diagnosis to determine the maximum chloride concentration at which it can operate in the hydrometallurgical plant of DRT, indicating the materiality changes required in the equipment and piping in the hydrometallurgical plant, due to the projected corrosive conditions.