CCD washing, where stages beat water

A leach residue washed counter-currently so entrained copper liquor reports to the overflow instead of the tailings, then precipitated.

Perry's washing equation over a real stage train•Recovery rises steeply with wash ratio, then saturates•pH-driven hydroxide precipitation on solubility products

Leach residue

Entrained liquor

Wash water

CCD wash train

Washed tailings

Precipitator

Copper sludge

Raffinate

The actual dark-mode canvas: leach residue washed counter-currently with clean water so entrained copper liquor reports to the overflow rather than the tailings, then the copper dropped out as hydroxide sludge.

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Stages beat water

Washing efficiency depends on the wash ratio and the stage count together, and the stage count enters as an exponent — which is why adding a thickener buys more than adding water, and why the whole train is solved rather than a single wash step scaled up. The precipitation stage that follows is driven by pH against real solubility products.

R_{\text{wash}} = \frac{R-1}{R^{\,N+1}-1} \quad \text{(Perry's counter-current washing equation)}

R = \frac{\text{wash flow}}{\text{entrained liquor}}, \qquad N = \text{number of stages}

\mathrm{Cu^{2+}} + 2\,\mathrm{OH^-} \rightleftharpoons \mathrm{Cu(OH)_2}\!\downarrow \quad (K_{sp})

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CCD washer

Counter-current decantation on Perry's washing equation — entrained liquor recovered from a residue.

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Precipitator / neutralizer

Aqueous stream dosed to a target pH; solubility products decide what drops out as hydroxide sludge.

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Live plant integration

Stream wash-water ratio, underflow density and raffinate copper assay from the plant's OPC-UA server into this flowsheet's twin comparison — washing efficiency degrades as thickener underflow density drifts, and the solved stage train shows the cost in recovered copper.

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