Patent ID: 8585798

Claim:
A method for recovering copper and gold by treating sulfide ore containing gold or the sulfide ore bearing silica ore, in which gold is contained (hereinafter referred to as “the raw material”), wherein the method comprises: a copper-leaching step, in which the raw material is added into a first acidic aqueous solution, which contains chloride and bromide of alkali metal or alkali earth-metal, as well as chlorides of copper and iron or bromides of copper and iron, and air is blown in at least a certain period, into the first acidic aqueous solution, thereby obtaining a leach liquor, in which cuprous ions and cupric ions are contained; a solid-liquid separating step, in which a resultant unleached solid material of said copper-leaching step and the leached copper are subjected to solid-liquid separation; an air-blowing step, in which air is blown into the post solid-liquid separation liquor, thereby oxidizing at least a part of the cuprous ions contained in the post solid-liquid separation liquor to the cupric ions, oxidizing the iron leached in the copper-leaching step, and simultaneously co-precipitating impurities comprising iron leached in the copper-leaching step, followed by separating the precipitates; a copper-extracting step, in which copper is extracted from the post-liquor of the air-blowing step, from which liquor the precipitates have been separated; and, a gold-recovery step, in which the residue, which has been separated in the solid-liquid separating step, is added to a second acidic aqueous solution, which contains chloride and bromide of alkali metal or alkali earth-metal, as well as chlorides of copper and iron or bromides of copper and iron, and air is blown into the second acidic aqueous solution under the atmospheric pressure, at a temperature lower than a boiling point of the second acidic aqueous solution, and in the presence of iron, wherein said gold-recovery step does not include chlorine gas.