{"id":2518,"date":"2026-01-27T20:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T01:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=2518"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:53:44","slug":"a-little-bit-of-history","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/chapter\/a-little-bit-of-history\/","title":{"raw":"2. A Little Bit of History","rendered":"2. A Little Bit of History"},"content":{"raw":"Solvent extraction has been long practiced for analytical chemistry applications. Purification of uranium leach solutions was the first major application of solvent extraction in hydrometallurgy. Prior to the late 1960's hydrometallurgical copper was very limited in scope. Leach solutions were passed over scrap iron to precipitate copper metal:\r\n\r\n\\[\\ce{Cu^2+_{(aq)} + Fe_{(s)} = Cu_{(s)} + Fe^2+_{(aq)}} \\tag{1}\\]\r\n\r\nThis worked because Cu<sup>+2<\/sup> can easily oxidize iron. But, scarp iron is fairly costly, copper metal recovery was somewhat awkward and the copper was quite impure, requiring further refining. In 1968 Ranchers Exploration and Development Corp. started the first copper SX plant in Miami, Arizona[footnote]G. Kordosky, \"Copper recovery using leach\/solvent extraction\/electrowinning technology: Forty years of innovation, 2.2 million tonnes of copper annually,\" Journal of South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2002, Nov.-Dec., pp. 445-450.[\/footnote]. This soon supplanted the old cementation technology (as represented by the reaction above). Copper SX-EW became the modern standard by which hydrometallurgical copper was produced, and greatly expanded the potential for the business.","rendered":"<p>Solvent extraction has been long practiced for analytical chemistry applications. Purification of uranium leach solutions was the first major application of solvent extraction in hydrometallurgy. Prior to the late 1960&#8217;s hydrometallurgical copper was very limited in scope. Leach solutions were passed over scrap iron to precipitate copper metal:<\/p>\n<p>\\[\\ce{Cu^2+_{(aq)} + Fe_{(s)} = Cu_{(s)} + Fe^2+_{(aq)}} \\tag{1}\\]<\/p>\n<p>This worked because Cu<sup>+2<\/sup> can easily oxidize iron. But, scarp iron is fairly costly, copper metal recovery was somewhat awkward and the copper was quite impure, requiring further refining. In 1968 Ranchers Exploration and Development Corp. started the first copper SX plant in Miami, Arizona<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"G. Kordosky, &quot;Copper recovery using leach\/solvent extraction\/electrowinning technology: Forty years of innovation, 2.2 million tonnes of copper annually,&quot; Journal of South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2002, Nov.-Dec., pp. 445-450.\" id=\"return-footnote-2518-1\" href=\"#footnote-2518-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a>. This soon supplanted the old cementation technology (as represented by the reaction above). Copper SX-EW became the modern standard by which hydrometallurgical copper was produced, and greatly expanded the potential for the business.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-2518-1\">G. Kordosky, \"Copper recovery using leach\/solvent extraction\/electrowinning technology: Forty years of innovation, 2.2 million tonnes of copper annually,\" Journal of South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2002, Nov.-Dec., pp. 445-450. <a href=\"#return-footnote-2518-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2529,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-2518","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":2476,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2529"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3746,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2518\/revisions\/3746"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/2476"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2518\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=2518"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2518"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/hydrometallurgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}