Claims
- 1. A method of continuously acid pressure leaching comprising the steps of:
- a) initially leaching a slurry of lateritic ore with leach solution in a primary autoclave to remove metal values from said slurry of lateritic ore;
- b) transferring said initially leached slurry of lateritic ore from said primary autoclave to a multi-compartment autoclave, said multi-compartment autoclave containing a series of chambers,
- c) progressively leaching said initially leached slurry of lateritic ore in said multi-compartment autoclave to remove additional metal values from said initially leached slurry of lateritic ore; and
- d) cleaning said primary autoclave while said slurry of lateritic ore is being leached in said multi-compartment autoclave.
- 2. The method of claim 1 including the additional steps of:
- leaching in a first primary autoclave and transferring leached slurry from said first primary autoclave to said multi-compartment autoclave while a second primary autoclave is cleaned.
- 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said leaching and cleaning is alternated between said first and second primary autoclaves.
- 4. The method of claim 2 including the additional step of operating said first and second primary autoclaves simultaneously prior to said cleaning.
- 5. The method of claim 4 wherein said first and second primary autoclaves are operated in series.
- 6. The method of claim 4 wherein said first and second primary autoclaves are operated in parallel.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein said cleaning step includes dissolving scale in said primary autoclave with acid.
- 8. The method of claim 1 wherein said cleaning step includes introducing a solution containing at least about 30 g/l H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 into said primary autoclave.
- 9. The method of claim 1 wherein said cleaning step includes introducing a solution containing a corrosion inhibitor into said primary autoclave to limit corrosion.
Parent Case Info
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/399,892 filed on Mar. 7, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,992.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
399892 |
Mar 1995 |
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