Albion process

History

Development of the Albion process started during the early nineties led by Mount Isa Mines. It was first patented in 1993. Several pilot plant projects were conducted in 1994 and 1995 which tested the feasibility of using the technology to process high arsenic gold and copper ore.

The Albion Process has been successfully installed in seven projects globally:

• GPM Gold Project (Gold, Armenia)
• Las Lagunas Tailings (Gold, Dominican Republic)
• Sable Copper Project (Copper, Chalcopyrite, Zambia)
• Asturiana de Zinc (Zinc, Spain)
• Nordenham Zinc Refinery (Zinc, Germany)
• McArthur River (Zinc, Australia)

Process

The ore concentrate is first introduced into a stirrer mil (such as IsaMill). This comminution step places a high degree of strain on the mineral lattice and causes an increase in the number of grain boundary fractures and lattice defects of several orders of magnitude. The increase in the number of defects within the mineral lattice "activates" the mineral, facilitating leaching. The rate of leaching is also enhanced, due to the increase in the mineral surface area.

The oxidative leaching stage is carried out in agitated tanks operating at atmospheric pressure. Oxygen is introduced to the leach slurry to assist the oxidation. Leaching is autothermal, not requiring any external heat. Temperature is controlled by the rate of addition of oxygen, and by the leach slurry density.

Chemistry

The general reaction for the leaching process is:

MS + \frac{1}{2} O_2 + H_2SO_4 \rightarrow MSO_4 + S^0 + H_2O

References

References

1. "Albion Process".
2. (January 2026). "GPM Gold Project in Armenia".
3. "First Chalcopyrite Copper Concentrate Leaching using Albion Process Technology".
4. "Albion Process".