ABSTRACT
This chapter and the next one are intended as brief reviews of solution and air flow, respectively, during percolation leaching. They are generally applicable to both ore heaps and mine waste dumps. Solution flow is obviously important and air flow is very important to the leaching of sulfide minerals, but these flow behaviors in ore heaps have been poorly understood. Of primary interest for sulfide ores is the combined case of downward percolation of solutions in unsaturated fragmented rock driven by gravity combined with upward flow of air, driven by a buoyancy gradient induced by changes in air temperature and composition. Saturated solution flow—flooded leaching—will be treated in a subsequent chapter. Flooding during percolation leaching obviously excludes air flow.
