NAME: Suparna Mondal

Sr. No.: 14510

Experiment - 4
Leaching

Aim: To perform leaching in order to separate alumina (Al2 O3 ) from Bauxite ore which
also contains Fe2 O3 and SiO2 .

Principle: Leaching is a hydrometallurgical process used to extract metal from metal

bearing materials. In other words it’s a process of extracting metals from ore by treating
it with an aqueous lixiviant solution. Lixiviant solution refers to a liquid medium used to
selectively extract desired metal from the ore or mineral.

Leaching can be primarily classified into two types depending on the amount of disso-
lution in lixiviant solution. They are partial dissolution and complete dissolution. As the
name suggests, in partial dissolution, either the mineral or the gangue gets dissolved in the
solution therefore the mineral can be extracted by either by decantation or by collecting the
residue depending on whether or not the mineral got dissolved. On the contrary, in complete
dissolution both gangue and mineral get dissolved in the lixiviant solution and the mineral
is extracted by further treatment on the solution.

Leaching of bauxite ore involves partial dissolution. This can be done by either letting
alumina to get dissolved in the lixiviant for by letting the gangue to get dissolved in the
lixiviant. For the former, the ore/concentrate is dissolved in Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) at
temperature range of 150◦ C - 200◦ C. Latter is the one that has been chosen for this exper-
iment i.e. dissolving gangue in the lixiviant solution. This has been done by dissolving the
ore/concentrate in HCl at 70◦ C. Sample of the solution were collected after equal interval
of time and atomic absorption spectroscopy was done to verify increase in concentration of
Fe in the solution. The reaction taking place can be written as follows:

Fe2 O3 + HCl → FeCl3 + 3H2 O

Atomic absorption spectroscopy uses the principle that free atoms generated by an at-
omizer can absorb radiation at a specific frequency. the ground state electrons of the gas
generated of the sample make a transition to higher level energy shells. The concentration
is determined by the amount of absorption. Absorption and concentration are related by
Beer-Lambert law which can be written as follows:

1
 A = εCl

where,
A : Absorbance
ε : Molar absorptivity of the solution
C : Concentration of the solution
l : Optical path length

Procedure:

Step 1: 100 ml of HCl : H2 O :: 1 : 4 solution was prepared in a measuring cylinder and

trasferred to a Erlenmeyer flask.

Step 2: 2 grams of powdered Bauxite ore was then added to the solution and mixed well
with the help of a glass rod.

Step 3: 1 ml of sample was collected in an eppendorf and was for marked with time; t = 0.

Step 4: To maintain a constant volume 1 ml of DI water was added to the solution. The
erlenmeyer flask was then kept in a shaker which was maintained at a temperature of 70◦ C.

Step 5: The reaction was continued for 90 mins and 1 ml of sample was collected after
every 15 mins. And as mentioned earlier, to maintain a volume of 100 ml 1 ml of DI water
was added everytime.

Step 6: Atomic absorption spectroscopy was then done on the seven samples to determine
the concentration of Fe in them. The values were plotted against time. The data and the
plot has been presented below.

Data and Plot:

Time (mins) Concentration (mg/L) Absorbance

0 0.1346 0.001
15 0.4370 0.005
30 0.6413 0.008
45 0.7674 0.010
60 0.8693 0.011
75 0.9726 0.012
90 0.9934 0.013

2
3
 Calculations:

From the curve of absorbance v/s concentration , it can be seen that the slope(m) is 0.01367.

We know,

A = εCl
A
⇒ C
= m = 0.0137
⇒ εl = 0.0137

Results and Conclusions:

1. εl for the samples have a value of 0.0137.

2. Increasing concentration of Fe in the lixiviant solutions verifies our claim of Fe2 O3

getting converted to FeCl3 .

3. Gradual decrease in the rate of reaction (slope of the curve) shows that this is a second
order reaction for which for reaction is proportional to the product of concentration of
reactants.

4. As the saturation of Fe concentration can be seen in the end, it shows that all the Fe2 O3
got converted to FeCl3 .

5. Once the reaction is complete i.e. no more Fe2 O3 is left in the concentrate, alumina can
be extracted by filtering the mixture. The sediment will contain all the alumina.