Desalination 193 (2006) 422–425 0011-9164/06/$– See front matter © 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. Presented at the International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes (ICOM), Seoul, Korea, 21–26 August 2005. *Corresponding author. Use of membranes in copper hydrometallurgy N. Sabba a , D.E. Akretche b * a Faculty of Chemical Engineering, b Faculty of Chemistry, USTHB, BP32, El-Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria Fax +213 (21) 247311; email: dakretche@hotmail.com Received 22 March 2005; accepted 28 August 2005 Abstract Usually, the recovery of metals from ore follows a flow sheet which includes the leaching operation, the filtration and the purification concentration. However, in this work a new processing method is described. It is an electromembrane process where the ore is inserted between two membranes. It is shown that an application of a current density gives rise to an efficiency recovery of copper using ion exchange membranes. Keywords: Hydrometallurgy; Electroleaching; Ion-exchange membranes 1. Introduction The recovery of metals from non-ferrous ores has been widely studied and the process chosen depends upon both the composition and the localization of the ore. Hydrometallurgical tech- niques are often used knowing the low metal con- centration in the actual sources. Thus, leaching is the principal operation of the process and many works are performed to improve extraction yields, economical aspects and the selectivity. Recently, new developments of electro-mem- brane processes in solid matrix treatment, par- ticularly in soil remediation field [1–6], promise a new alternative in the metal extraction from ores. In effect, an electrokinetic process is an in situ technique which combines the principle of elec- trodialysis with electromigration of ions in the solid. It is also called either electrodialysis or electroosmosis. This fact has induced us to test it for the treat- ment of Algerian copper ore in both ammonia and acidic mediums. In this study, electroleaching experiments with membranes similar to electro- dialysis have been carried out using typical samples of copper ore from Ougarta, a locality in the South West of Algeria. This ore contains cop- per (average percentage 6.5%) in various minera- logical forms where malachite (Cu 2 CO 3 (OH) 2 ) is doi:10.1016/j.desal.2005.08.028