Abstract:Different researchers often attained scattered kinetic results for the same leaching process. Usually, the difference is ascribed to the variation in mineral resource, chemical composition and, accuracy of experimental methods, while less attention is paid to the sample processing history. The present study shows that processing history of pyrite sample can cause great changes in its physico-chemical properties. Crushing, grinding and milling lead to an increase of the leachability of pyrite and the leaching becomes less temperature dependence owing to the decreasing of apparent activation energy of the reaction. The activation energy for its leaching in H₂SO₄-HNO₃ solution is depressed from 73.9 to 47.5kJ/mol after being activated through vibrating milling for 40min. On the contrary, aging causes the reverse change owing to the release of extra inner energy stored during mechanical treatments. Thus activity of pyrite will decrease towards its original value. Surely the processing history of concentrate sample should be taken into consideration when studying the kinetics of leaching reaction.

Key words:  leaching; mechanical activation; aging