Leaching copper ores and solvent extraction of the copper-bearing solutions

Claim 1

A process for the recovery of copper values from copper-bearing ores comprising: a. leaching the ore with mineral acid in the presence of water to produce a pregnant liquor stream containing dissolved copper values, and washing the leached ore residue with an internal recycle stream from step (c) in addition to other wash waters, b. passing additional water through the leach vessel containing spent ore residues, said ore being disposed from the recovery system and said water being subsequently combined with the pregnant liquor stream from step (a) to form a resultant stream which is then passed through c. at least one first extraction stage containing an extraction agent for removal of copper values, said extraction stage producing a loaded organic extraction stream and an aqueous raffinate stream containing metal values not extracted from resultant stream of step (b) and separating said raffinate stream into a first internal stream of aqueous raffinate and a second internal stream of aqueous raffinate, d. passing the first internal raffinate recycle stream back to step (a) leach system, and e. passing the second internal stream to a second extraction having at least one extraction stage containing a second extracting agent where the copper values are extracted in the presence of a low pH extracting agent, said extraction stage producing a loaded organic stream and a disposal stream, while f. the loaded organic stream from step (e) is stripped in at least one stripping stage in the presence of sufficient stripping acid containing aqueous stripping agent, resulting in a stripped organic stream and a loaded stripping acid stream g. recycling the stripped organic stream from step (f) to the extraction stage of step (e) while h. the loaded stripping acid stream of step (f), containing recovered copper values is passed to the process described in step (a), while i. the loaded organic stream produced in step (c) is passed through at least one stripping stage wherein a stripped organic stream and a pregnant electrolyte stream is produced, subsequently j. recycling the stripped organic stream to the resultant stream extraction of step (c), while k. passing the pregnant electrolyte to a copper recovery process from which exits a spent electrolyte stream which is recycled to step (i) as a stripping agent, while 1. recovering the copper values as metal from step (k).