Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Covellite (CuS) Production from a Real Acid Mine Drainage Treated with Biogenic H2S
2019; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3390/met9020206
ISSN2075-4701
AutoresPatricia Magalhães Pereira Silva, Adriano Reis Lucheta, José Augusto Pires Bitencourt, André Carmo, Ivan Patricio Ñancucheo Cuevas, José Oswaldo Siqueira, Guilherme Oliveira, Joner Oliveira Alves,
Tópico(s)Minerals Flotation and Separation Techniques
ResumoAcid Mine Drainage (AMD) is an environmental problem associated with mining activities, which resulted from the exposure of sulfur bearing materials to oxygen and water. AMD is a pollution source due to its extreme acidity, high concentration of sulfate, and soluble metals. Biological AMD treatment is one alternative to couple environmental amelioration for valuable dissolved metals recovery, as a new source of raw materials. Covellite (CuS) particles were synthetized from an AMD sample collected in a Brazilian copper mine, after 48 and 96 h of exposure to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced in a bioreactor containing acidophilic sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). The time of exposure affected the morphology, nucleation, and size of CuS crystals. CuS crystals synthetized after 96 h of H2S exposure showed better ordination as indicated by sharp and intense diffractograms obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the predominance of placoid sheets with hexagonal habit structure as observed by scanning electrons microscopy (SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry indicated a Cu:S molar ratio in agreement with CuS. Granulometric analysis demonstrated that 90% of CuS particles were less than 22 µm size. AMD biological treatment is a potential economical CuS recovery option for metallurgical process chain incorporation, or new industrial applications, since the alteration of synthesis conditions can produce different crystal forms with specific characteristics.
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