o:185 Copper recovery and reduction of environmental loading from mine tailings by high-pressure leaching and SX-EW process en Abstract: The flotation tailings obtained from Bor Copper Mine contain pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), these sulfide minerals are known to promote acid mine drainage (AMD) which poses a serious threat to the environment and human health. This study focuses on the treatment of mine tailings to convert the AMD supporting minerals to more stable forms, while simultaneously valorizing the mine tailings. A combination of hydrometallurgical processes of high-pressure oxidative leaching (HPOL), solvent extraction (SX), and electrowinning (EW) were utilized to recover copper from mine tailings which contain about 0.3% Cu content. The HPOL process yielded a high copper leaching rate of 94.4% when water was used as a leaching medium. The copper leaching kinetics were promoted by the generation of sulfuric acid due to pyrite oxidation. It was also confirmed that a low iron concentration (1.4 g/L) and a high copper concentration (44.8 g/L) obtained in the stripped solution resulted in an improved copper electrodeposition current efficiency during copper electrowinning. Moreover, pyrite, which is primarily in the mine tailings, was converted into hematite after HPOL. A stability evaluation of the solid residue confirmed almost no elution of metal ions, confirming the reduced environmental loading of mine tailings through re-processing. Received: 16 July 2021 Accepted: 21 August 2021 Published: 24 August 2021 Keywords: tailings valorization; high-pressure leaching; copper recovery; acid mine drainage; metal elution 1552099 10.3390/ met11091335 91552100 65248265 2022-05-02T19:38:55.493Z 44 yes 46 Labone L. Godirilwe Akita University, Japan Kazutoshi Haga Akita University, Japan person Batnasan Altansukh Akita University, Japan person Yasushi Takasaki Akita University, Japan person Daizo Ishiyama Akita University, Japan person Vanja Trifunović Institut za rudarstvo i metalurgiju Bor person Ljiljana Avramović Institut za rudarstvo i metalurgiju Bor person Radojka Jonović Institut za rudarstvo i metalurgiju Bor person Zoran Stevanović Institut za rudarstvo i metalurgiju Bor person Atsushi Shibayama Akita University, Japan person application/pdf 23223005 https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:185 no yes 16 70 92000001 71A03 Metals 11 1335 2021