Hydrometallurgical leaching apparatus

Claim 1

In apparatus for hydrometallurgical leaching of minerals, an upright vessel having substantially vertical side walls and a substantially horizontal bottom wall, means for forming a solid discharge outlet in the bottom wall comprising a plurality of horizontally spaced outlet openings of sufficient size to pass the solids, means including a rotatably mounted jet nozzle free of raker arms positioned upwardly from the bottom wall of said vessel and radially directed laterally outward in an essentially horizontal plane from a substantially vertical axis for supplying leaching liquid in at least one stream directed generally parallel to said bottom wall from a position generally thereabove, said last named means being under sufficient pressure to vigorously agitate solids in the path of said stream, independent drive means for progressively rotating said jet nozzle to cause liquid in said stream to sweep over the bottom wall of said vessel, means for delivering solids to the upper region of said vessel, a liquid overflow discharge formed at the upper end of said vessel whereby leaching liquid being introduced at the bottom passes upwardly through the solids contained within said vessel in counter-current flow in relation to the downward moving solids contained therein and thence becoming an overflow from said vessel, means for receiving the overflow and for removing any solids content therefrom, means for returning at least a portion of the solids-free overflow to a lower region of said vessel, said vessel being flooded with liquid and thereby containing an agitated zone of solids in contact with said liquid adjacent said jet nozzle, with an overlying zone of solids-in-contact, and outlet means associated with each of said outlet openings including a discharge trap formed from a pipe section, and at least one valve connected to said pipe section, together with means for operating said valve to periodically empty said pipe section through said valve.