Extraction of copper
Stage 2: Froth flotation The powdered ore is mixed with a special paraffin oil which makes the copper mineral particles water repellent.
Extracting copper by smelting
Even the few grams of copper in your mobile phone is worth recovering. It is valuable enough to ship to other plants and other countries for processing. These can be supplied either by a zinc atom ionising at the anode or by a copper atom ionising - it doesn't need both to happen. This is the west coast of South America, showing the line of volcanoes that stretches along the whole west coast of the continent. Electrolysis of the new solution. The copper is now The concentration of the solution should stay the same. This quick summary is probably unsuitable for anything other than UK A level purposes. Some impurities form a slag such as FeO. Copper has a remarkable combination of properties. The concentration of ions like zinc will increase with time, and the concentration of the copper II ions in the solution will fall.Uses of copper Amongst other things copper is used for: electrical wiring. However, as the concentration of copper in the ore bodies decreased, the energy costs of smelting the whole ore also became prohibitive, and it became necessary to concentrate the ores first.
The very dilute solution is brought into contact with a relatively small amount of an organic solvent containing something which will bind with copper II ions so that they are removed from the dilute solution. Smelting The smelter separates the copper from the sulphur in CuFeS2 in one stage: Copper and Oxygen are reduced, sulphur is oxidised, and iron is oxidised.
Questions to test your understanding If this is the first set of questions you have done, please read the introductory page before you start.
Lifting the solidified anodes into cooling tanks. Initial concentration techniques included hand-sorting [10] and gravity concentration.
Pure copper cathodes are arranged between the blister copper anodes and a current of over A passes through the solution. Find the two furnaces that send sulfur dioxide gas to the acid plant.
Chile exported 8.