Non-Chemical question about copper in solution

[Wyndham]

This has to do with a bit off topic but if I had a solution of copper sulfate or other copper in solution 2 questions. First, is there a reasonable field test to tell how much copper is in solution : 2 If that solution were to have an anode and cathode(steel or stainless steel) powered by a car battery or other DC source, would the current plate out the copper faster than say scrape steel.
I'm trying to get an idea of the level of concentration that would be optimum to plate out copper. Would a .5% or 1% work?
I saw a news item on the Andaconda pit where they are pumping large volumes of pit water into vats filled with scrape steel then after a week wash the copper off the steel return the barren water to the pit and start all over again.
This is sort of a brain storming question. With copper up around $3/lb might be interesting.
Thanks for any ideas Wyndham

 

[goldsilverpro]

Off the top of my head, I think that cementation on scrap steel would work much better (and, cheaper). There are all sorts of control problems that occur when trying to plate out copper. Plating works best with the solution composition is controlled within strict ranges.

With cementation, the speed mainly depends on the surface area of the steel. With plating, it mainly depends on the amperage applied.

 

[Wyndham]

Thanks, one further question on cementation, do you think an addition of current to the scrape would help in any way.
I'm thinking of some of the old abandoned copper mines that have low grade leach pile that might be, with the right method, recover the copper that is not economically feasible for a large company (EPA, not withstanding)
Wyndham

 

[Lino1406]

Why, d'you think a small company
can ignore EPA?

 

[Wyndham]

That's not what I meant. What I meant was to clarify the process and validate it before going through the EPA process. Sorry if it looked like an end run around the EPA, God can't even get by them, much less me.
I wanted to prove in a lab test or field test a method then to do the rest of the chain of command. Wyndham

 

[goldsilverpro]

I, personally, would not use any current. The cementation method works great, if everything is done right. Why complicate things?

 

[Lino1406]

even if you got a wonderful
process, EPA restrictions
will make it a losing biz.
Moreover, I would expect
larger size to have a margin
over a small scale in that
respect (as in many others).

 

[Wyndham]

I understand where your coming from and I'm not saying that this will be profitable. I am simple wondering if there is a way,reasonable and profitable to enhance the cementation process by way of a current.
You know that the Anaconda pit might also be getting a very small amt of gold dropping out in the mud at the bottom of the lake. Maybe 1000 yrs from now there'll be a nice layer of mud with gold and no lake.
I'm just wondering what might work, heck they say the Canadian Geese that land have introduce a bacteria that might eat the arsenic in the water.
Later Wyndham

 

[goldsilverpro]

I spent a week, once, in the Anaconda cellhouse. They processed 30,000,000 pounds of copper, per month, and got 3,000 oz of gold. That is .2 ozs of gold per ton of produced copper. I don't know the ratio of ore to produced Cu, but the gold figure is surely very low in the ore.

 

[Lino1406]

electric current will enhance deposition
many times

 

[Wyndham]

Thanks Lino1406. Is there a method or formula that would give a way of understanding the deposition rate for a certain % of copper in solution. I'm guessing that it would decrease on a curve VS straight line decreasing as it reached some point of desaturation.
I'm planning a small test unit with different amts of copper in solution so this might give me a bit of a heads up on what I might expect.
Thanks Wyndham

 

[Lino1406]

Constant, not decreasing
depends on current
unless you use too high
voltage, where most of
the current will electrolyze water,
and not copper

 

[Wyndham]

Thanks, I'll set up a test set soon. I've got a Titanium anodizing setup that should be good to test with. Later Wyndham