| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2020 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Electrometallurgy 2020
|
| Presentation Title |
Electrolytic Extraction of Liquid Copper and Iron from Chalcopyrite Ore |
| Author(s) |
Lucas Rush, Caspar Stinn, Andrew Caldwell, Mary Elizabeth Wagner, Ryohei Yagi, Katrin Daehn, Antoine Allanore |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Katrin Daehn |
| Abstract Scope |
Chalcopyrite ore (CuFeS2) is the principal mineral resource for copper metal. In the conventional pyrometallurgical route, oxygen is used to separate copper from sulfur and iron, releasing gaseous sulfur dioxide (SO2) and slag containing iron oxide (FeO) as low-value byproducts. Alternatively, electrolysis of the chalcopyrite ore would allow the direct separation of elemental copper, iron and sulfur, with few process steps, high energy-efficiency, and no by-products. The development of an electrolytic method producing liquid copper was previously hindered by the high electronic conductivity of the sulfide melt, but recent investigations (Sokhanvaran et al., 2016) show copper can be extracted with a suitably ionically-conducting supporting electrolyte. Here, we show for the first time that both metallic copper and iron can be extracted from natural chalcopyrite ore while generating elemental sulfur using only electricity. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Supplemental Proceedings volume |