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US-12619924-B2 - Acid impacts on a leach stockpile

US12619924B2US 12619924 B2US12619924 B2US 12619924B2US-12619924-B2

Abstract

The system may include a secondary irrigation feature that determines a percent of overlap of each of a plurality of submodules in a second lift over each of a plurality of submodules in a first lift and adjusts at least one of leaching operations or a leaching model based on the total tonnage weighted average of metal in the second lift. The method may further comprise determining an acid gap based on a difference between total acid given and total acid consumption; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the acid gap. The method may further comprise determining a percentage of compacted material based on the material that is compacted and irrigated divided by the material that is irrigated; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the percentage of compacted material.

Inventors

  • Dana Geislinger
  • Travis Gaddie
  • Margaret Alden Tinsley
  • Steven Chad Richardson
  • Raquel Crossman
  • Cristian Caro
  • Kevin Cheng
  • Rosemary D Blosser
  • Amelia Briggs

Assignees

  • FREEPORT MINERALS CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20240814

Claims (19)

  1. 1 . A method comprising: determining an acid gap based on a difference between total acid given and total acid consumption; determining an acid gap percentage based on the acid gap divided by the total acid consumption; determining remaining soluble metal based on: (a percentage of leachable minerals) * (1-the acid gap percentage); further adjusting at least one of leaching operations or a leaching model based on the remaining soluble metal; and transmitting an activation signal to activate a leaching device, wherein the leaching device performs the percolating of the total acid given from the second lift to the first lift, in response to the activation signal activating the leaching device that distributes the total acid given.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an impact on metal production in at least one of a first lift or a second lift, based on the acid gap.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an impact on metal production, based on the total acid given in at least one of a first lift or a second lift.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an impact on metal production based on under-dosing of the total acid given in at least one of a first lift or a second lift.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the acid gap is used to determine an acid dosage for leaching the material.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an amount of the total acid given based on the least impact to metal production.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the percentage of leachable minerals in at least one of a first lift or a second lift is determined from a quick leach test.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the total acid given includes at least one of cure acid, cumulative raffinate acid or cumulative ILS (Intermediate Leach Solution) acid.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising incorporating the acid gap into the leaching model to reduce errors.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: creating a tonnage weighted average of metal for a second lift based on a percent of overlap with a first lift, a percent of a metal in the second lift and a tonnage of material in the second lift, wherein the percent of overlap is based on at least a portion of the second lift that is over the first lift; and transmitting an instruction signal to a leaching device for adjusting leaching operations to optimize metal production, based on the tonnage weighted average of the metal in the second lift.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining a percent of metal in one or more of a plurality of submodules in a second lift, based on percolating the total acid from a second lift to the first lift; creating a tonnage weighted average of the metal for the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift based on a percent of overlap, the percent of metal and a tonnage of material in the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift, wherein the percent of overlap is based on the one or more of a plurality of submodules in a second lift that are respectively over the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the first lift; adding the tonnage weighted average of metal for the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift to create a total tonnage weighted average of the metal in the second lift; and transmitting an instruction signal to a leaching device for adjusting leaching operations to optimize metal production, based on the acid gap and the total tonnage weighted average of the metal in the second lift.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining the percent of overlap of the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift that are respectively over the one or more of a plurality of submodules in the first lift and that impact the acid gap.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining the tonnage of material in the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the first lift that impacts the acid gap.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising transmitting an instruction signal to a material moving equipment, wherein the material moving equipment moves the material in at least one of the first lift or the second lift, in response to the instruction signal being received by the material moving equipment, to increase the percent of overlap of the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift over the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the first lift and to optimize metal production based on the acid gap.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising transmitting an instruction signal to a material moving equipment for adjusting, based on the total tonnage weighted average of metal in the first lift and the acid gap in the first lift, a stacking of the material in one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift over one or more of the plurality of submodules in the first lift.
  16. 16 . The method of claim 11 , the percent of overlap of the one or more of the plurality of submodules in the second lift is based on mine plan data and the acid gap.
  17. 17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the adjusting the leaching operations is based on the acid gap and comprises changing ore routing in real-time.
  18. 18 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising: determining, by a processor, deviations between forecast data for a mining production target and actual data for a mining production target; and determining, by the processor, a contribution to the deviations by the acid gap, by a plurality of parameters and by the total tonnage weighted average of the metal in the first lift, in response to changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data.
  19. 19 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining a percentage of compacted material in a first level of a stockpile, based on a first amount of material that is compacted and irrigated divided by a second amount of the material that is irrigated; determining a stability of the first level of the stockpile, based on the percentage of compacted material in the first level of the stockpile; monitoring how irrigation flows through the first level of the stockpile during leaching operations, based on the percentage of compacted material in the first level of the stockpile; determining a reduction in the irrigation flows through the first level of the stockpile compared to the irrigation flows through a second level of the stockpile, based on higher percentage of the compacted material in the first level of the stockpile compared to a lower percentage of the compacted material in the second level of the stockpile; determining that less metal is removed in the first level of the stockpile based on the higher percentage of the compacted material in the first level of the stockpile, compared to more metal being removed in the second level of the stockpile based on the lower percentage of the compacted material in the second level of the stockpile; and adjusting at least one of pressure, a mass flow rate, or a volumetric flow rate of the leaching operations, based on the higher percentage of compacted material in the first level of the stockpile and the lower percentage of the compacted material in the second level of the stockpile.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional of, claims the benefit of and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/485,143 entitled “CHEMICAL IMPACTS ON A LEACH STOCKPILE” which was filed on Oct. 11, 2023 (the “'143 application”). The '143 application is a continuation-in-part, claims the benefit of and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/306,534 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING LEACHING OPERATIONS BASED ON LEACH ANALYTIC DATA” which was filed on Apr. 25, 2023 (the “'534 application”), now U.S. Pat. No. 11,893,519 issued on Feb. 6, 2024. The '534 application is a continuation of, claims the benefit of and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/985,446 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING LEACHING OPERATIONS BASED ON LEACH ANALYTIC DATA” which was filed on Nov. 11, 2022, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,681,959 issued on Jun. 20, 2023 (the “'446 application). The '446 application is a continuation of, claims the benefit of and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/850,834 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING LEACHING OPERATIONS BASED ON LEACH ANALYTIC DATA” which was filed on Jun. 27, 2022, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,521,138, issued on Dec. 6, 2022 (the “'834 application”). The aforementioned applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties for all purposes. FIELD The disclosure relates to using secondary irrigation, acid gap and compaction to adjust leaching operations and to optimize metals production. BACKGROUND Traditionally, ores have been routed to a particular processing system based on the mineralogy of the ore. For example, copper oxide and carbonate ores (e.g., cuprite, chrysocolla, malachite, and azurite) may be very amenable to leaching. Exposure to dilute sulfuric acid carries sufficient chemical energy to put the copper into solution, so that the copper can be purified and recovered by the downstream processing methods of solvent extraction and electrowinning. Leach recoveries from oxide and carbonate minerals can approach 100% of the contained copper, provided sufficient acid is available for leach reactions. Acid cost should also be considered because it may not be economically possible to provide all the acid that the ore requires to release all of the contained copper. Gangue minerals (which are present in heap leach operations) consume acid but yield no value. The type and amount of gangue minerals determine the amount of acid that will be consumed, so mineralogical analysis and laboratory testing is used to determine whether an ore is economic to leach. If the cost of the acid for the process is greater than the value of copper obtained, the ore is not economic to process. Advancements in leach technology have also made it possible to recover copper from secondary copper sulfides (e.g., chalcocite and covellite) via leaching. To break the copper-sulfur bonds in these minerals, oxidation is used. Sulfuric acid carries some oxidizing potential, but much of the driving force for leaching sulfides comes from the oxidation potential of ferric iron in solution. The presence of iron ions in solution is usually due to the leaching of iron bearing minerals present in the heap leach. When ferric iron oxidizes copper sulfide minerals, the ferric iron is converted to ferrous iron. The ferrous iron is converted back to ferric iron to further oxidize copper sulfide minerals. For this re-oxidation to occur, a source of oxygen or oxidation is used. The top and sides of a heap leach stockpile are open and atmospheric oxygen is readily available (so the heap surface area is a variable). However, within a heap leach (e.g., within a multi-lift heap leach structure), the interior may be oxygen starved and copper recovery may be adversely impacted. To help overcome this problem, various means of introducing oxygen into the interior of the heap leach structure may be used. Air or oxygen may either be introduced by physically piping or blowing it into the ore structure, by influencing the dissolved oxygen or oxygen potential of the leach solution, or by direct oxidation (which may be chemical oxidation). In heap bio-leaching, oxidizing microorganisms (which may be naturally occurring) convert ferrous iron to ferric iron and thus aid the leaching operation. In another class of minerals (e.g., the primary sulfides), copper is more tightly bound to iron and sulfur within the mineral lattice. An example of these minerals is chalcopyrite. Although much work is currently being performed to leach chalcopyrite bearing minerals, generally leach recovery from these minerals is low (e.g., around 15% of the contained copper). This usually results in these minerals being sent to froth flotation and smelting. However, some chalcopyrite may be placed on leach stockpiles, either because the chalcopyrite is mixed with other (more leachable) minerals or because the chalcopyrite is contained in ore whose