Interactions between marmatite and bornite during the oxidative dissolution process in abiotic and biotic systems

Yanjun Zhang; Hongbo Zhao; Yisheng Zhang; Lu Qian; Luyuan Zhang; Xiaoyu Meng; Xin Lv; Abhilash; Hussnain Ahned Janjua; Guanzhou Qiu

doi:10.1039/c9ra03658j

Interactions between marmatite and bornite during the oxidative dissolution process in abiotic and biotic systems

RSC Adv. 2019 Aug 27;9(46):26609-26618. doi: 10.1039/c9ra03658j. eCollection 2019 Aug 23.

Authors

Yanjun Zhang^{1

2}, Hongbo Zhao^{1

2}, Yisheng Zhang^{1

2}, Lu Qian^{1

2}, Luyuan Zhang^{1

2}, Xiaoyu Meng^{1

2}, Xin Lv^{1

2}, Abhilash³, Hussnain Ahned Janjua⁴, Guanzhou Qiu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University No. 932 Lushan South Road, Yuelu District Changsha Hunan China 410083 alexandercsu@126.com zhbalexander@csu.edu.cn.
² Key Lab of Biohydrometallurgy of Ministry of Education Changsha Hunan China.
³ CSIR - National Metallurgical Laboratory Jamshedpur 831007 India.
⁴ Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Sector H-12 Islamabad Pakistan.

Abstract

Marmatite and bornite are commonly associated together in nature, and their interactions in an acidic environment are vital for both (bio)hydrometallurgy and acid mine drainage (AMD) production. In this work, dissolution experiments (marmatite : bornite = 2 : 0, 3 : 1, 1 : 1, 1 : 3 and 0 : 2) accompanied by analytic techniques such as electrochemical methods, Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation-XRD (SR-XRD) were utilized to interpret the interactions between marmatite and bornite in acidic abiotic and biotic systems. The dissolution experiments showed that marmatite can significantly accelerate the oxidative dissolution of bornite, especially in the abiotic system. On the contrary, bornite inhibited the oxidative dissolution of marmatite when the percentage of bornite was high. Electrochemical measurements proved that the galvanic interactions between marmatite and bornite were slight and should not be the main cause for the interactions. Combined with the dissolution experiments, analytic techniques and previous references, it could be speculated that marmatite accelerated bornite dissolution mainly by providing an iron source, which acted as the energy source for microorganisms and oxidants. Bornite affected the dissolution of marmatite mainly by Cu²⁺ ions dissolving from bornite. Bornite inhibited the oxidative dissolution of marmatite mainly because a high Cu²⁺ concentration could significantly hinder marmatite dissolution. In addition, the formation of elemental sulfur or jarosite was also one important cause. Bornite intensified marmatite dissolution when the percentage of bornite or the Cu²⁺ concentration was extremely low and then, a synergic dissolution process occurred.