Dissolution of copper and iron from malachite ore and precipitation of copper sulfate pentahydrate by chemical process

The present work describes an investigation of a chemical process for the recovery of copper and iron from malachite ore. For the dissolution of copper and iron, H2SO4 was employed as well as H2O2 as an oxidizing agent. The effects of reaction temperature and time, acid concentration, liquid-to-solid ratio and agitation rate on the copper and iron percentage were investigated. Following the steps of dissolving the copper and iron sulfate and filtering, iron (III) hydroxide was precipitated by adjusting the pH level of the solution. Subsequently, copper sulfate pentahydrate was obtained by using various precipitants (i.e. ethanol, methanol and sulfuric acid).