Despite lots of techniques in improving the heap leaching performance,many constraints on the industrial applications remain.We proposed a correspondingly effective and new idea of introducing forced aeration to improve the bad permeability and leaching effect of Yangla Copper Mine(YCM)during heap leaching.The dual-media theory was employed to study the impact mechanism of forced aeration on the variations of porous and fractured media during the column leaching experiments.An X-Ray Computed Tomography(CT)set was utilized to perform the pore imaging of the specimens and the fracture morphology of the particles within the columns was analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM)as aeration rate(AR)changed.The results show that there exists copious fine particles within the heap of YCM,the particle size distribution of which is not reasonable.The forced aeration can not only promote the development of the porous and fractured structures but effectively break the blocked seepage paths.Then the leaching degree is improved and the seepage performance of the solute within the solution is enhanced.Therefore,the forced aeration is probable of making the leaching performance greatly improved.
The effect of ultraviolet mutagenesis on a heterotrophic strain(Providencia JAT-1) mutation was studied and bioleaching of low grade copper ore with mutant bacteria was investigated. The results show that the activity of bacteria was improved after ultraviolet mutagenesis; the best irradiation time was 120 s. Compared to the original bacteria, the cells density of mutant bacteria at stationary phase increased by 26% and ammonia produced by mutant bacteria increased by 12%. Higher activity of bacteria leads to a higher copper extraction rate. The bioleaching performance of Providencia JAT-1 was improved after UV mutagenesis. The copper extraction rate with mutant bacteria increased by 10.6% compared to the original bacteria. The ore surface was corroded and the fine particles were absent after bioleaching. Free copper oxide and copper silicates could be leached out easily by using JAT-1; a small part of the copper sulfide can also be leached out. Bioleaching using JAT-1 is more effective than ammonia leaching and copper extraction rate with mutant bacteria was 21.1% higher than that by ammonia leaching under the same condition.
