Case Stu dy

Metal Extractants

A Closer Look at Reagent Consumption

Reagent consumption is an important consideration in any Organic Loss from the SX Circuit

commercial copper solvent extraction circuit. This article

PLS
examines the main factors that influence reagent consumption solids, organic acids etc

and considers the validity of comparing the performance Raffinate/RE: O in A entrainment

<10ppm – 100ppm
of operating plants using the widely used "Reagent Usage"
Recovered SX Plant
metric (defined as the mass of reagent consumed in a given Organic Crud removal
From interface
period of time divided by copper cathode production for the
same period of time). An alternative metric is also presented Raffinate
Pond &
– described as Net Reagent Entrainment – which is reagent Rich Electrolyte
Tank
consumption in a given time period divided by the PLS flow-
Clay/Crud
rate for the same period. Treatment
Partial organic recovery

Reagent consumption can be separated into two categories.

Net Organic Loss
The first is the mechanical loss of the organic phase. The
volume of organic lost is the difference between the total
organic volume leaving the SX plant and the volume of Figure 1: PointsReagent
of Reagent Exit & Entry into
Consumption an SX Circuit
Comparison
recovered organic. Both are equally important considerations 20.00
18.00
in the control of reagent consumption.
kg/ton and ppm

The 16.00
loss of organic from an SX circuit, both as entrainment
Reagent Usage (kg/ton)
Net Reagent Entrainment (ppm)
14.00
into 12.00
the raffinate and by removal of interfacial crud, is
The second category is the loss of extractant by hydrolytic influenced
10.00 by many factors. The most important of these are
8.00
and other forms of degradation. Although all modern copper described
6.00 below.
solvent extraction reagents are highly resistant to hydrolytic 4.00
2.00
degradation, there are still differences in the degradation Mixer/Settler
0.00 Design
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4
rate constants, which translate into differences in reagent Depending on other contributing factors, mixer/settler design
consumption. can play a major role in reagent consumption. In recent
years, improvements in mixer/settler design have resulted in
a significant decrease in the average reagent consumption
(although some plants with “older” designs still provide
good performance).
Reagent Combining
Usage in low shear
South mixer 2003
America design with
5
optimized
4.5 settler design has enabled plants operating with
Reagent Usage (kg/t)

4
design
3.5
flows and clean pregnant leach solution to operate
with2.5entrainment losses of less than 10ppm and with very low
3

interfacial
2 crud generation.
1.5
1
0.5
0
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Un-Modified Reagents Modified C9-Aldoxime Reagents
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 R eagent C onsumption , page 2

Flow versus Design & Mixer Continuity degradation. Examples of equipment used to recover organic in the
The flow rates of PLS and organic relative to plant design can have a raffinate leaving the plant include pacesetters and Jameson cells.
significant influence on both entrainment and organic loss with crud Examples of equipment used to recover organic from the raffinate
removal. If the PLS flow is increased relative to the organic flow so pond and electrolyte tank includes tank skimmers and belt or mop
that the O/A ratio drops below 1:1, the dispersion in the extract stage skimmers. Appropriate use of baffles and booms within ranks and
mixers will generally be aqueous continuous. raffinate ponds can also assist in allowing entrained organic to
accumulate on the surface where it can be recovered.
Theoretically, aqueous continuous operation should result in
increased organic in aqueous losses, but decreased aqueous in In order to get an idea of the relative impact of the various factors
organic losses. In practice, this is observed in some but not all cases. described above, four theoretical cases are presented in the table
For instance a large plant in Arizona, which inverted the raffinate below and discussed in the section that follows.
stages from organic to aqueous continuous, was actually able to
lower entrainment losses from 60ppm to 40ppm over the course of a Comparison of Factors
three-year period, while increasing the PLS flow by over 17%. Influencing Reagent Consumption

PLS Turbidity Parameter Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4

PLS turbidity, together with the nature of the solid particles, plays PLS Flow vs Design 100% 100% 150% 150%
an important role both in the rate of crud formation and organic in PLS Flow (m3/hr) 2000 2000 3000 3000
aqueous entrainment. Plants with high PLS turbidity inevitably have PLS Grade (g/l) 4.2 4.2 2.8 2.8
higher organic consumption than plants with low PLS turbidity. In the Cu Recovery (%) 90 90 90 90
most extreme cases, removal of interfacial crud can account for over Cathode Production (tpa) 66226 66226 66226 66226
60% of total organic consumption. Reagent concentration (vol%) 15 15 15 15
Organic Entrainment (ppm) 40 50 70 80
Recovery of Organic back to the SX Circuit Organic exiting plant as
Effective organic recovery can have a huge influence on overall Entrainment (m3/year) 731 913 1918 2192
reagent consumption. A range of equipment is available both to Organic exiting plant in
recover organic from the raffinate pond and from organic associated crud (% of total) 10% 30% 20% 40%
with crud. Organic exiting plant in
crud (m3/year) 81 391 479 1461
Recovery of Organic Associated with Crud Total organic exiting
Efficiently recovering organic associated with crud is one of the most plant (m3/annum) 812 1304 2397 3653
straightforward ways to lower organic consumption. Several types of Organic Recovery (%) 50% 10% 50% 10%
process equipment have been developed to separate organic from Organic Recovered (m3/annum) 406 130 1198 365
crud, the most widely used of which are centrifuges, plate filters and Organic Loss (m3/annum) 406 1174 1198 3287
filter presses. 3
Reagent Loss (m /year;
0.95 kg/m3) 58 167 171 468
Recovery of Entrained Organic Reagent Usage (kg/ton) 0.87 2.53 2.58 7.07
Recovery of entrained organic – that is, the organic floating on the Net Reagent Entrainment (ppm) 3.30 9.55 6.50 17.82
raffinate pond and the rich electrolyte tank – is important both
to minimize organic consumption and for good housekeeping. The two different ways of comparing reagent consumption are
Organic that is left to build up on the surface of the raffinate pond presented in Figure 2 for the four cases described in this table.
or rich electrolyte tank may undergo both hydrolytic and oxidative
 TankOrganic Loss from the SX Circuit
Clay/Crud PLS
Treatment solids, organic acids etc
Partial organic recovery
Raffinate/RE: O in A entrainment
<10ppm – 100ppm
Recovered R eagent C onsumption , page 3
SX Plant
Net Organic Loss Organic Crud removal
From interface

Raffinate
Pond &
Reagent Consumption Comparison Interestingly, the reagent usage is very similar to that in CaseRich
2, Electrolyte
Tank
20.00 although Net Reagent Entrainment is only two thirds of the value in
Clay/Crud
18.00 Case 2. So which isTreatment
the better operating plant? Are they similar, as
kg/ton and ppm

Reagent Usage (kg/ton)

16.00
Net Reagent Entrainment (ppm)
the reagent usage number suggests, orPartial
is theorganic
plant inrecovery
Case 3 actually
14.00 operating better than the plant in Case 2?
12.00 Net Organic Loss
10.00 Finally, Case 4 considers an older plant operating with flows 50%
8.00
above design to maintain production. Turbidity is similar to that of
6.00
Case 2 but the less efficient
Reagent design together
Consumption with the higher PLS
Comparison
4.00 20.00
flow results in higher entrainment of organic into the raffinate and
2.00 18.00
a higher percentage
Reagentof organic loss with crud leaving the plant.

kg/ton and ppm

Usage (kg/ton)
0.00 16.00
Additionally, organic recovery is poor, with the result that reagent
Net Reagent Entrainment (ppm)
14.00
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4
12.00
consumption is far higher than in the other three cases.
Figure 2: Reagent Consumption Comparison 10.00
8.00
How6.00 Type of Reagent Affects Consumption
Case 1 considers a modern SX plant operating at design flow with
The4.00
chart below is a comparison of reagent usage of South American
low turbidity PLS. The plant achieves over-the-weir entrainment of 2.00
plants with annual production of more than 5,000 MT per year. South
organic into the raffinate of 40ppm and organic associated with crud 0.00
America was chosen
Case 1 forCase
this 2comparison
Case 3as the plants
Case 4 generally
leaving the plant accounts for 10% of the total. Organic recovery both
operate with flows at or very close to design. The plants are divided
from crud and entrainment is efficient at 50%. Accordingly, reagent
by reagent class, that is to say modified C-9 aldoxime based reagents
consumption, Reagent
expressed bothUsage inUsage
as Reagent South and America
Net Reagent 2003
and un-modified aldoxime/ketoxime based reagents.
5
Entrainment, is very low.
4.5
Reagent Usage (kg/t)

4 We'll leave the review of this data and drawing of conclusions to you.
Case 2 also considers a modern SX plant at design flow but with
3.5
higher turbidity and poorer organic recovery systems in place. As a Reagent Usage in South America 2003
3 5
result of the higher turbidity, entrainment of organic into the raffinate
2.5 4.5
Reagent Usage (kg/t)

is2slightly higher than that seen in Case 1 and organic associated with 4
1.5 3.5
crud leaving the plant now accounts for 30% of the total. The poorer 3
1
recovery system means that only 10% of the total organic leaving the 2.5
0.5 2
plant
0
is recovered. Organic consumption, expressed both as Reagent 1.5
Usage1and2Net3Reagent Entrainment, is approximately three times
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 170.518 19
1

higher than in Case 1. 0

Un-Modified Reagents Modified C9-Aldoxime Reagents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Case 3 considers a modern plant which has increased the PLS grade Un-Modified Reagents Modified C9-Aldoxime Reagents
by 50% to maintain production, as the PLS copper grade has fallen
to half the value used in Cases 1 and 2. Relative to Case 1, although
In conclusion, while reagent usage is a useful guide to plant
PLS turbidity remains low, the higher PLS flow rate results in higher
performance, direct comparisons may be misleading, since no two
entrainment of organic into the raffinate and higher loss of organic
plants have identical operating parameters.
associated with crud. Recovery of organic is as efficient as in Case 1
but with nearly double the organic in aqueous entrainment leaving
the plant, the reagent usage is three times that of Case 1, while the
Net Reagent Entrainment is double.
 R eagent C onsumption , page 4

Recommendations for Controlling Organic

Consumption
• Maintain good mixer emulsion continuity in the phase that is
appropriate for mixer organic/aqueous ratios (no mixed phases)
• Maintain quality of separation in settlers, including:
– proper crud management
– minimal solids/crud leaving aqueous weir (carrying organic)
– appropriate depth of organic/aqueous phase based on flow
rates to maintain similar relative velocities of phases
• Minimize mixer agitation to avoid formation of micro-droplets
• Avoid air being entrained into the mixer through feed lines,
pumps or from the surface of the mixer
• Recover organic from crud that is removed from the plant
• Use tanks, coalescers, etc. and control the flow of solutions in
raffinate ponds to allow entrained organic leaving the plant to
coalesce and collect in areas where it can be recovered
• Use skimmers, organic recovery mops/ropes, etc. to collect
pooled organic
• Properly clean recovered organic to ensure that no contami-
nation is introduced into the SX plant, which would create phase
separation problems

5/15/06 MCT-1099

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