^1*Zoran STEVANOVIC, ²Milan ANTONIJEVIC, ²Grozdanka BOGDANOVIC, ¹Mile BUGARIN, ¹Vlastimir TRUJIC, ¹Radmila MARKOVIC & ³Dragutin NEDELJKOVIC
¹ Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor, 35 Zeleni bulevar, P. O. Box 152, 19210 Bor, Serbia;
^*E-mail:zoran.stevanovic@irmbor.co.rs
² University of Belgrade, Technical Faculty Bor, VJ 12, P. O. Box 50, 19210 Bor, Serbia
³ University of Belgrade, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, Njegoseva 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

THE EFFECT OF OXIDANTS THROUGH A TAILING DUMP DEPTH AND THE LEACHING OF COPPER

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The research results of the oxidants influence on Cu leaching recovery from the old Bor flotation tailing dump from the Bor mining facilities, located in eastern Serbia, will be present. Leaching experiments were carried out on samples of tailings taken from the surface of tailing dump down to the depth of 20 m, per depth intervals of 5 m. Copper content in the initial samples ranged from 0.026 % (surface) to 0.43% (20 m depth). Tests of copper leaching were carried out in the acid media (0.01 M solution of H₂SO₄) without an oxidant, with addition of hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. All threecombinations of tests were done with and without the previous rinsing of samples so that total of sixdifferent series of experiments emerged. During previous rinsing of samples with distilled water, highdegree of copper leaching (up to 75.33%) was achieved in some samples indicating the presence ofcopper sulfate and other soluble copper oxides. The highest copper recovery were obtained in theexperiments with 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide and amounted to 88.93% and 62.63% for sampleswith and without rinsing, respectively. These results indicate on extremely high mobility of copper ionsand the risk in terms of pollution the surrounding water system and soil.