Patent ID: 7510593

Claim:
A method for processing concentrates produced from copper sulfide-containing ores, comprising: concentrating a copper sulfide-containing ore to form a first concentrate and a second concentrate separate from the first concentrate, wherein: the first concentrate contains chalcopyrite (CuFeS 2 ), and said chalcopyrite contains sulfide-form iron, and the second concentrate contains copper sulfide, and is different from the first concentrate; leaching the second concentrate in the presence of a leaching solution containing an acid, neutralizing the resulting solution, and precipitating iron from the resulting solution to form a leaching product solution; converting the leaching product solution in a series of at least two conversion steps to form a converted solution, comprising: a first conversion step, comprising reacting copper contained in the leaching product solution with sulfide-form iron in the first concentrate to form copper sulfide and a converted solution, recovering copper sulfide, and returning at least a portion of the converted solution from the first conversion step to the leaching of the second; and a second conversion step, comprising reacting one or more dissolved metals different from copper in the converted solution with a sulfide form iron to form the corresponding metal sulfides.