ABSTRACT
The paper presents the copper ore deposit from Rosia Poieni, Romania, the stages of mineral ore extraction and capitalization. Considerations are made about new technologies aiming to increase the exploita tion’s feasibility. Copper capitalization is realized from the very poor, oxidized ores, with content below the exploitable limit, using nonconventional technologies: biochemical dissolution in acid environment, obtaining a final product represented by pentahidrate or electrolytic copper. The microflora, Thiobacillus Ferroxidans naturally developed in the poor ore deposit had an intense activity, separating copper minerals and oxidizing the Fe++ in solution.
The copper extraction from the solution by the application of nonconventional biochemical technologies has been realized as follows: cementation on iron wastes, intense electrolysis of the solution, extraction with organic solvents. During the electrolyze, the solution has high purity copper, at about 99.9%.
The total copper production could rise from 5-6% at present to an estimated 40–42%.
