Int. J. Miner. Process.

72 (2003) 331 340

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijminpro

Ultimate recovery in heap leaching operations as established from

mineral exposure analysis by X-ray microtomography
J.D. Miller a,*, C.L. Lin a, C. Garcia b, H. Arias b
a

Department of Metallurgical Engineering, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, University of Utah, 135 South 1460 East, Room 412,
William C. Browning Building, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
b
Compana Minera Zaldvar, Av. Grecia 750, Antofagasta, Chile
Received 21 November 2002; received in revised form 13 December 2002; accepted 1 July 2003

Abstract
The question of ultimate recovery in heap leaching operations is always of particular concern with respect to economic
considerations. Of course, the particle size distribution is a critical factor which determines ultimate recovery and which must be
established based on a balance between the extent of mineral exposure and transport phenomena. Now it seems that the ultimate
recovery for a given particle size distribution can be established from mineral exposure analysis by X-ray microtomography
(XMT). Using recently developed software, micro-computed tomography (CT) data can be used to determine the fraction of
mineral exposed and thus the ultimate recovery. Examples of mineral exposure analysis are given for the copper heap leaching
operation at Zaldivar, Chile.
D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: heap leaching; mineral exposure analysis; X-ray microtomography

1. Introduction
Considerable advances have been made in the
practice of heap leaching. Technical progress was
revealed in the recent International Technical Meeting on the Development of Copper Bioleaching Technology sponsored by Compana Minera Zaldvar
(CMZ) and held in Antofagasta, Chile, 12 14 March
2001, during which time heap leaching at CMZ was
reviewed. Discussion at the meeting indicated that
further advances in copper recovery at the CMZ

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-801-581-5160; fax: +1-801581-4937.

E-mail address: jdmiller@mines.utah.edu (J.D. Miller).
0301-7516/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0301-7516(03)00091-7

operation would require an improved understanding

of the heap leaching system. This objective can be
achieved with the use of an advanced diagnostic
technique, namely high resolution 3D X-ray microtomography (XMT), together with advanced simulation of flow through a packed bed of particles. These
results can be coupled with the results from more
traditional column leach experiments and solution
chemistry considerations in order to identify heap
leaching conditions for improved copper recovery.
Optimum design of the chemistry, utilization of
reactants (acid, air, microorganisms, bacteria population, and iron), is limited by our current understanding
of the mechanics of the system. The mechanics of the
copper heap leaching system include such issues as
particle breakage/exposure/liberation, particle texture/

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composition, and fluid flow phenomena inside the

packed bed of particles, which constitute the heap.
Once these issues (such as how particle size distribution influences both mineral exposure/liberation and
flow behavior) are resolved, optimal chemical conditions can be established and a schedule designed for
the utilization of the various reactants.
In the copper heap leaching process, inclusions of
the desirable valuable minerals (copper-bearing minerals) are to be dissolved from ore particles. The
copper-bearing minerals have some unknown grain
size distribution, texture/exposure, and spatial distribution in the ore particles. The procedure is to crush
the ore so that the valuable mineral grains are
exposed and can be extracted during the heap leaching process. If we can determine the relationship
between the percentage of the exposed valuable
mineral with respect to particle size for a given ore
type, the ultimate recovery in the heap leaching
process can be predicted for a specific particle size
distribution. It is therefore extremely important to
characterize the percentage of exposed valuable mineral grains in the ore as a function of particle size.
XMT is currently the only direct measurement technique for mineral exposure analysis. The object of
this research is to determine the expected ultimate
recovery based on 3D mineral exposure analysis from
XMT data.

2. Method
2.1. High-resolution three-dimensional X-ray
microtomography
The application of the principles of cone-beam
computed tomography (CT) at the microscale level
(microtomography) allows for the quantitative examination of objects in three dimensions. Practical
microtomography systems only recently have been
developed. As the resolution and the techniques for
3D geometric analysis have advanced in the last
decade, it is now possible to map in great detail the
mineralogical texture of ore particles in three-dimensional digital space. High-resolution 3D X-ray
microtomography (XMT) can be used for the direct
determination of the percentage of exposed valuable
mineral grain in multiphase particles which vary in

size from 100 mm down to a few hundred micrometers. Spatial resolution on the order of 10 Am can
be achieved with the use of microfocus X-ray
generators.
For cone-beam CT, a whole 3D data set is acquired
with only one rotation of the sample. This provides for
fast data acquisition and better X-ray utilization. In a
cone-beam design, each projection of the object is, in
essence, a radiograph. Attenuation measurements are
simultaneously made for the entire object rather than
for a single slice. Clearly, cone-bean CT has the best
prospects for true 3D liberation/exposure analysis and
should be able to provide the necessary accuracy to
quantitatively describe these micron-sized multiphase
systems such as the 3D distribution of mineral phases
in multiphase particles.
2.2. X-ray microtomography system
A unique cone-beam X-ray micro-CT system has
been designed, assembled, and installed at the University of Utah (Lin and Miller, 2002). The cone-beam Xray micro-CT system at the University of Utah was
designed based on the following considerations:

a system geometry optimized to obtain high

resolution 2D and 3D CT images of small samples
but with the flexibility to examine larger objects as
required;

a detector with the resolution, efficiency and
dynamic range required to obtain high quality data
from a broad spectrum of samples;

a reliable X-ray source which will allow us to focus
on research rather than maintenance; and

a high accuracy positioning system required to
maintain the spatial resolution provided by the Xray imaging component.
In this regard, the University of Utah micro-CT
system was designed and assembled to obtain
2048  2048 pixel reconstruction over a 10-mm
diameter, while allowing for the imaging of somewhat larger (40 mm) objects. Specifically, the specimen positioning stage system can be manually
mounted at one of three different locations, providing
system magnifications of 5, 2 or 1.25 and spheres of
reconstruction with respective diameters of 10, 25 or
40 mm.

J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

The system consists of a microfocus X-ray source,

a specimen positioning stage, and a digital X-ray
detection camera. These hardware components are
integrated inside an interlocked radiation-safety enclosure. This container is mounted on a vibrationisolated stand, which also supports the power
supplies, drivers and controllers for the X-ray source,
CCD camera and positioning system. A photograph of
the cone-beam X-ray microtomography system is
shown in Fig. 1.
2.3. Sample preparation
The mine site selected for sampling was that of
Compana Minera Zaldvar located about 160 km east
of Antofagasta, Chile. Representative samples from
selected composites were screened into 10 size fractions ( + 25.4, 25.4  19.1, 19.1  12.7, 12.7  9.5,
9.5  6.36, 6.36  3.18, 3.18  1.7, 1.7  0.425,
0.425  0.150, 0.150  0.075 and  0.075 mm).
These samples, as much as 10 kg for the coarse

333

particle size classes, were prepared by personnel at

Zaldvar and were shipped to the University of Utah
after the chemical and mineralogical analyses of the
various size fractions had been completed.
2.4. System calibration
X-ray tomographic reconstruction produces a
three-dimensional map of X-ray attenuation coefficients of the irradiated cross-section of the specimen.
Differentiation of features within the sample is possible because the linear attenuation coefficient (l) at
each point depends directly on the electron density,
the effective atomic number (Ze) of the material
comprising the sample, and the energy of the X-ray
beam (E). A simplified equation that illustrates the
approximate relationship among these quantities is



bZe3:8
l q a 3:2
1
E
where q is the density of the phase, a is a quantity
with a relatively small energy dependence and b is a
constant (McCullough, 1975; Wellington and Vinegar,
1987). When a mixture of atomic species is present,
Ze (the effective atomic number) is defined by
Ze3:8

X

fi Zi 3:8

Fig. 1. The cone-beam X-ray micro-CT system.

where fi is the fraction of the total number of electrons

contributed by element i with atomic number Zi.
Generally, the different mineral phases contained in
the ore body can be distinguished using the X-ray CT
technique. In practice, density measurement from Xray tomographic data can be done either by calibrating
the CT machine with objects of known density and
obtaining a correlation equation that relates density
with the attenuation coefficient or by using dual
energy scanning to determine directly the density of
the material. In such a fashion, then, a three-dimensional density map of the object under investigation
can be established.
In the first experiment, natural copper-bearing
mineral particles (known to exist in the ore deposit)
were selected as standards for CT scans. The energy
settings were 50 and 130 kV. Fig. 2 presents the
results obtained for natural copper mineral sample
scans for the attenuation coefficients versus density

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J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

Fig. 2. Plots of X-ray attenuation coefficient (l) versus density (q) and effective atomic number (Ze3.8) for different copper-bearing mineral
particles as indicated in the figure.

(q) and the effective atomic number (Ze3.8), respectively. For particle density measurements, this X-ray
CT scanner is quite stable as indicated by the calibra-

tion results. For quantitative exposure analysis from

tomographic images, it is necessary to have a welldefined, consistent method to identify each voxel as

Fig. 3. 3D semi-transparent image of a packed bed of copper ore particles (1.68  1.19 mm). Dark gray represents the copper-bearing mineral
grains and light gray represent the host rock. Three sectioned 2D images along the cutting planes of x-, y-, and z-axes are included to reveal
textual details of the ore particles.

J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

gangue or copper minerals. In this study, thresholds or

cut-off attenuation coefficient values between the
peaks of air, gangue minerals and copper minerals
are used to identify different phases.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Mineral exposure analysis
High spatial resolution and the direct processing of
raw volumetric data are the two important benefits
offered by this new method. To illustrate the potential
of XMT for exposure/liberation analysis, an example
is given here as shown in Fig. 3 which shows 3D
details of the distribution of copper-bearing minerals

335

(in dark gray) in a packed bed of ore particles (host

rock mineral phase is set as transparent light gray).
Particle size of this particle bed is 1.68  1.19 mm.
Using a 3D image processing technique, we can
remove all the host rock mineral phase and reveal only
the copper-bearing mineral grains as shown in the
lower left-hand side of Fig. 3. Also included in Fig.
3 are three sectioned 2-D images along the cutting
planes of x-, y- and z-axes. The two vertical cutting
planes reveal sections of the particles in those planes. It
is evident that the grain size distribution of copper
minerals can be determined as well as their exposure.
Fig. 4 further illustrates the ability of the high
resolution XMT system for the quantitative mineral
exposure/liberation analysis. Four cross-sections
(from a total of 512 sections) along the Z-direction

Fig. 4. Cross-sectional images from the 3D XMT reconstruction of a packed bed of multiphase particles. The white regions represent crosssections of copper mineral grains and the extent of their exposure at the particles surfaces.

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J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

are shown as established from the three-dimensional

reconstruction of the packed bed of copper ore particles (the corresponding 3D view is shown is Fig. 3).
These sections are taken from the three-dimensional
image; the image elements in the reconstruction are
cubic, so the spacing between planes equals the spatial
resolution which in the Z-direction corresponds to 20
Am. Here the gray scale levels of the images are based
on the relative attenuation coefficient and are indicative of different mineral phases present in the sample.
The white regions represent sections of the copper
mineral grains.
Exposed grains can be identified only through the
analysis of the 3D data set of particles. For instance,
one slice of a cross-sectional image from a total of 512
slices of the 3D data set for the original CT image is

extracted and shown in Fig. 5. Using a 3D image

analysis algorithm, the overall copper-bearing grains
(as shown previously in Fig. 3) and internal/exposed
grains can be identified and shown in the bottom of
Fig. 5 for comparison. In this case, the percent of
copper-bearing mineral exposed was found to be 78%.
It must be emphasized that mineral exposure analysis
can only be determined from the complete 3D data
set.
3.2. Mineral exposure versus particle size
As mentioned previously, the ultimate recovery in
the heap leaching process can be predicted for a
specific particle size distribution, if we can determine
the relationship between the percentage of the ex-

Fig. 5. Cross-sectional images from the 3D XMT reconstruction of a packed bed of multiphase copper ore particles. The overall copper-bearing
grains and internal/exposed grains obtained from 3D image analysis are shown in the bottom for comparison.

J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

posed valuable mineral with respect to particle size for

different ore types. It is therefore extremely important
to characterize the percentage of the exposed valuable
mineral grains in the ore as a function of particle size.
In this regard, three types of copper ore from different
parts of the deposit were collected, sampled and sized
to 10 size intervals following the procedures mentioned previously in the sample preparation section.
Representative samples of particles from different
size intervals were taken and put into a cylindrical
container for XMT analysis. Scanning time was varied
depending on the resolution and the number of views.
For example, for 20-Am resolution and 512 
512  512 data set, the scanning time is about 1
h and full three-dimensional reconstruction requires
approximately 2.5 h. Since the reconstruction algorithm is coded for multithread (parallel processing), it
is expected that the time for reconstruction can be
reduced significantly with the use of computers
equipped with multi-processors (currently a workstation with dual, 275-MHz MIP-12000 processors). As
Moores Law marches on, so 18 months from now,
processors will be doubled in power. In fact, at the
present time, it is possible to reduce the reconstruction
time to less than 10 min with an eight-processor
board.
Fig. 6 shows the relationship between the percent
of copper exposed with respect to particle size for

Fig. 6. Relationship between the mineral exposure and particle size

for composite 4.

337

composite 4. It is noted that more than 98% of the

copper mineral grains are exposed for particle sizes
less than 0.425 mm. Many large almost completely
liberated copper mineral grains (clusters of grains)
were found in particle size classes of 3.18  1.7 and
1.7  0.425 mm. Fig. 7 shows cross-sectional CT
images for different particle size classes.
3.3. Particle size distribution for heap leaching
The copper mineral inclusions have a certain size
distribution (grain size distribution), N(X), where N is
the weight fraction of grains for particle size X. The
heap leaching process should be designed to crush the
ore so that the copper mineral grains are exposed and
can be leached. Fig. 8 presents the grain size distribution for various particle size classes for the composite 4
sample. In this regard, 3D connected components
labeling technique was used to label and classify each
individual grain volume (number of voxels). In this
way, then, the grain size is defined as the cube root of
the grain volume. There is evidence that the copper
mineral grain size distribution is bimodal for particle
sizes greater than 1.7 mm. Of course, the exposure
curve, as shown in Fig. 6, is influenced by this bimodal
grain size distribution. In any event, the exposure
analysis can be used to establish an appropriate particle
size distribution for any heap leach operation. The
internal grain (no exposed grains) size distribution for
composite 4 for different particle size classes is shown
in Fig. 9 for comparison.
Relationship between the percent of copper exposed with respect to particle size provides the basis
for the prediction of copper recovery for a known
particle size distribution. In this regard, three different
particle size distributions were selected and 1.5-m
column tests were run for about 70 days. The first
particle size distribution is the one currently used at
the Zaldivar plant site. The second and third particle
size distributions are designed maintaining the same
d80 and d10 as the current plant particle size distribution, the difference is in the percentage of the middle
sizes as shown in Fig. 10. Because of the sensitivity of
mineral exposure to particle size, better recoveries can
be expected by appropriate adjustment of the particle
size distribution. Fig. 10 shows the predicted copper
recovery based on exposure analysis and actual copper recoveries from column tests with these different

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Fig. 7. Selected cross-sectional CT images for different particle size classes of composite 4.

J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

339

Fig. 8. Grain size distributions of composite 4 for different particle size classes.

particle size distributions. It is noted that the predicted

recoveries from XMT exposure analysis generally
underestimate the actual recoveries from column
leaching tests. Several reasons can account for this

discrepancy. First, particles are broken and eroded

during leaching, thus exposing new grains. This
difference can be corrected by particle size analysis
before and after column leaching tests. Second, the

Fig. 9. Internal grain size distribution of composite 4 for different particle size classes.

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J.D. Miller et al. / Int. J. Miner. Process. 72 (2003) 331340

ior) are resolved, optimal chemical conditions can be

established and the chemistry designed for the optimum utilization of the various reactants. In any event,
based on these initial results, it is evident that ultimate
recovery for any specific particle size distribution can
be estimated from mineral exposure analysis by XMT.

4. Summary

Fig. 10. Comparison of experimental column recovery with that

predicted from mineral exposure analysis by XMT for three
different particle size distributions.

resolution for the XMT analysis is limited to 5 Am. If

the fracture crack networks inside the particles are less
than 5 Am in size, they will not be detected by XMT.
Under these circumstances, what had been classified
as internal grains would actually be exposed and able
to react. Finally, the internal grains embedded near the
particle surface may have a chance to be leached. Of
course, it is expected that even better agreement will
be realized when these factors are incorporated into
the data analysis.
As expected, the smaller the particle size, the
higher the percentage of copper mineral exposed.
However, in addition to exposure analysis, the fluid
flow phenomena inside the packed bed of particles is
an important issue that needs to be investigated. It is
known that the smaller the particle size, the lower the
permeability of the packed particle bed. Once these
issues (such as how particle size distribution influences both mineral exposure/liberation and flow behav-

In heap leaching operations, the particle size distribution is a critical factor which determines ultimate
recovery and which must be established based on a
balance between the extent of mineral exposure and
transport phenomena. Development of mineral exposure analysis by X-ray microtomography (XMT) for
determination of ultimate recovery from a given
particle size distribution has been presented. Examples of mineral exposure analysis can be used to
define the most appropriate particle size distribution
for the copper heap leaching operation at Zaldivar,
Chile.

Acknowledgements
Support for this research program has been
provided by CMZ, a subsidiary of Placer Dome.

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Wellington, S.L., Vinegar, H.J., 1987. X-ray computerized tomography. Journal of Petroleum Technology 8, 885 898.