Advances in concentrate and sulfide mineral leaching were predominant issues at the 9th International Seminar on Hydrometallurgy, Hydroprocess 2017, done alongside the International Conference on Metal Solvent Extraction, ICMSE, and which gathered almost 300 professionals.
The Seminar included 52 technical presentations by authors from 13 countries, as well as 8 plenary presentations, which were valued by experts as they touched on important hydrometallurgical matters.
“The primary topics were focused on sulfide leaching and its effects on solvent extraction processes, and reflects the efforts that are being made to search for technologies and processes that allow an improved leaching process performance for the ever more complex and scarce leachable resources occurring in our mine sites”, affirmed Felipe Lagno, Plant Manager, Radomiro Tomic Division, Codelco.
Likewise, Fernando Valenzuela, Academic Director of the Chemical Sciences Faculty at Universidad de Chile, emphasized the importance of this version of Hydroprocess for solvent extraction plants in Chile, which have historically worked with oxides, but which now have to innovate toward sulfide leaching in order to avoid shutdown.
“This version of Hydroprocess was very important because 70% of the presentations were about sulfide leaching, which will generate a solution applicable to solvent extraction and electrowinning plants. In this way, we are reducing the threat of not knowing what to do with the hydrometallurgical plants in Chile”, established the academic.
Hydroprocess 2018
This Seminar also launched the next version of the Hydroprocess series, to be carried out in 2018 and which seeks to maintain the interest of experts to continue exploring the engineering advances for mining as well as metallurgy and chemistry.
“I hope that in a year some projects which in this version declared to be at a pilot scale can already be working at an industrial production level”, predicted Fernando Valenzuela.
At the same time, Lagno values instances as Hydroprocess where different actors from the mineral industry in general, and of hydrometallurgy in particular, can gather. “The challenges we are facing in extractive hydrometallurgy are similar in complexity for all which are part of this industry, reason why sharing experiencees and knowing the primary technological developments, is one of the greatest benefits that Hydroprocess provides to our industry”, he pointed out.
