Dissolution of copper metal in aqueous alkanolamine to form copper containing aqueous solution

1. A process for producing a copper-containing aqueous solution comprising between about 90 and about 130 grams of dissolved copper per liter of solution, said process comprising:

a) providing a leach liquor comprising water, monoethanolamine, and a monoethanolammonium salt, in a reactor wherein said monoethanolammonium salt is produced by admixing at least one acid with an aqueous monoethanolamine composition in an amount sufficient to provide between about 0.05 and about 0.7 equivalents of acid per mole of monoethanolamine, wherein the acid is selected from the group consisting of carbonic acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, boric acid, nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, fluoboric acid, oxalic acid, malonic acid, gallic acid, citric acid, ascorbic acid, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, and mixtures thereof, except that if the acid is carbonic acid there is at least one other acid additionally present;

b) providing a copper mass having a three dimensional open network that is permeable to the leach liquor, wherein the copper mass is present in an amount greater than about 200 grams per liter of leach liquor;

c) providing to the reactor a gas comprising air, oxygen, or mixture thereof; and

d) contacting the leach liquor with the air, oxygen, or mixture thereof and with the copper mass, thereby causing dissolution of a portion of the copper mass and forming the copper-containing aqueous solution product comprising between about 90 and about 130 grams of dissolved copper per liter of product, wherein the temperature of the leach liquor is maintained at a temperature between about 18° C. and 100° C. and wherein the average copper dissolution rate is greater than about 2.1 grams of copper per liter of leach liquor per hour.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the aqueous leach liquor comprises between about 30% and about 45% by weight of total monoethanolamine, and wherein the average copper dissolution rate is greater than about 4.2 grams of copper per liter of leach liquor per hour, so that the aqueous leach liquor dissolves at least 100 grams of copper per liter of aqueous leach liquor in 24 hours or less.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein the aqueous leach liquor dissolves between 100 grams and 130 grams of copper per liter of aqueous leach liquor in 8 hours or less.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the acid comprises boric acid.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein the pH of the aqueous leach liquor is maintained between 9 and 12.5, and the temperature of the leach liquor is maintained at a temperature between about 40° C. and about 80° C.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein the leach liquor comprises between 3000 to 50% total monoethanolamine and between 2% to 15% boric acid as H 3 BO 3 .

7. The process of claim 1 wherein the leach liquor comprises between 30% to 50% total monoethanolamine and between 5% to 18% hydrochloric acid.

8. The process of claim 1 wherein the leach liquor comprises boric acid and one or more of phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, and carbonic acid.

9. The process of claim 1 wherein the average copper dissolution rate is at least 17 grams of copper per liter of leach liquor per hour.

10. The process of claim 1 further comprising the step of contacting the copper mass with an acidic composition prior to contacting the copper mass with the leach liquor.

11. The process of claim 10 wherein the acidic composition subsequently forms a component of the leach liquor.

12. The process of claim 8 wherein the aqueous leach liquor dissolves between 100 and 130 grams of dissolved copper per liter in about 4 to about 6 hours.

13. The process of claim 1 further comprising the step of adding to the aqueous leach liquor an amount of copper-containing aqueous solution to provide an initial dissolved copper concentration in the aqueous leach liquor between 1 gram per liter and 17 grams per liter.

14. The process of claim 1 wherein the acid comprises one or more of acetic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and boric acid.

15. The process of claim 1 wherein the leach liquor comprises at least about 0.5 wt. % of a first acid selected from the group consisting of citric acid, oxalic acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, boric acid, carbon dioxide, and mixtures thereof, and at least 1 wt. % of a second acid, wherein the second acid is different than the first acid.

16. The process of claim 15 wherein the first acid is boric acid and the second acid comprises carbonic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, malonic acid, acetic acid, formic acid, propionic acid, ascorbic acid, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrobromic acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, fluoroboric acid, or mixtures thereof, wherein the boric acid makes up at least half of the equivalents of the total acids added to the aqueous leach liquor.

17. The process of claim 1 wherein the leach liquor provided consists essentially of the reaction product formed by mixing

water;

30% to 50% total monoethanolamine;

about 0.05 and about 0.7 equivalents of acid selected from the group consisting of carbonic acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, boric acid, nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, fluoroboric acid, oxalic acid, malonic acid, gallic acid, citric acid, ascorbic acid, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, and mixtures thereof, per mole of monoethanolamine, except that if the acid is carbonic acid there is at least one other acid additionally present; and

between 0 to about 17 grams of dissolved copper per liter of aqueous leach liquor.