Hydrometallurgy: Practice 1st Edition Michael

Nicol - eBook PDF download

https://ebooksecure.com/download/hydrometallurgy-practice-ebook-
pdf/

Download full version ebook from https://ebooksecure.com

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebooksecure.com
to discover even more!

Hydrometallurgy: Theory 1st Edition Michael Nicol -

eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/hydrometallurgy-theory-ebook-
pdf/

Hutchison’s Clinical Methods: An Integrated Approach to

Clinical Practice 24th Edition Michael Glynn - eBook
PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/hutchisons-clinical-methods-an-
integrated-approach-to-clinical-practice-ebook-pdf/

Diabetes Secrets 1st Edition Michael T. Mcdermott Md

Author - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/diabetes-secrets-ebook-pdf/

Strategies and Tactics in Organic Synthesis 1st Edition

Michael Harmata - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/strategies-and-tactics-in-
organic-synthesis-ebook-pdf/
Vulnerability Analysis for Transportation Networks 1st
Edition Edition Michael Taylor (Auth.) - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/vulnerability-analysis-for-
transportation-networks-ebook-pdf/

Orthodontics for the Craniofacial Surgery Patient 1st

Edition Michael R. Markiewicz - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/orthodontics-for-the-
craniofacial-surgery-patient-ebook-pdf/

Wilson Disease 1st Edition Edition Anna Cz■onkowska And

Michael L. Schilsky (Eds.) - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/wilson-disease-ebook-pdf/

Parallel programming: concepts and practice 1st Edition

- eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/parallel-programming-concepts-
and-practice-ebook-pdf/

Emergency Imaging of At-Risk Patients: General

Principles 1st Edition Michael N. Patlas - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/emergency-imaging-of-at-risk-
patients-general-principles-ebook-pdf/
HYDROMETALLURGY
This page intentionally left blank
HYDROMETALLURGY
Practice

Volume 2

MICHAEL NICOL
Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia

with contributions by

NICHOLAS WELHAM
GAMINI SENANAYAKE
Elsevier
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States

Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the
Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the
Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our
website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.

This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under
copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research
and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods,
professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and
knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or
experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be
mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they
have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or
editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a
matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of
any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN: 978-0-323-99214-5

For information on all Elsevier publications visit our website

at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals

Publisher: Candice Janco

Acquisitions Editor: Anita Koch
Editorial Project Manager: Mica Ella Ortega
Production Project Manager: Paul Prasad Chandramohan
Cover Designer: Miles Hitchen

Typeset by TNQ Technologies

Contents

1 Leaching practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Leaching methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Typical leaching processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Batch leaching kinetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Continuous leachingdmicro- and macrofluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Counter-current leaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.6 Bacterial oxidation and leaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.7 Pressure leaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.8 Heap leaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.9 In situ leaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.10 Leaching of gold and silver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.11 Alternative lixiviants for gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.12 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Problemsdleaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

2 Solideliquid separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.2 Sedimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.3 Thickeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
2.4 Filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
vi Contents

3 Precipitation and crystallization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.2 Thermodynamics of precipitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.3 Iron removal from zinc sulfate solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.4 Kinetics of precipitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5 Dissolutioneprecipitation processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

4 Solvent extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

4.1 A typical SX process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.2 Chemistry of SX processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.3 Extraction methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
4.4 Common SX contactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
4.5 Some SX processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

5 Adsorption and ion exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

5.1 Ion-exchange resins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.2 Speciality resins and adsorbents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
5.3 Ion-exchange equilibria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
5.4 Ion-exchange kinetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
5.5 Ion-exchange processes and equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
5.6 Process examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
5.7 Quantitative description of fixed-bed processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
5.8 Mass transport parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
 Contents vii

5.9 Modeling of breakthrough. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

5.10 The resin (carbon)-in-pulp process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
5.11 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Appendix 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Appendix 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Appendix 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Appendix 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

6 Cementation and reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

6.1 Cementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
6.2 Reduction by dissolved gas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
6.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

7 Electrowinning and electrorefining of metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

7.1 General considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
7.2 Mass transfer at vertical electrodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
7.3 Electrocrystallization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
7.4 Current distribution in cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
7.5 Materials for cells and electrodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
7.6 Tankhouse current distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
7.7 Energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
7.8 Electrorefining of metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
7.9 Electrowinning of copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
7.10 Electrowinning of zinc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
7.11 Electrowinning of nickel and cobalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
7.12 Electrowinning of manganese metal and dioxide . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
viii Contents

7.13 Electrowinning in novel cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

7.14 Economic optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
7.15 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

8 Process selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

8.1 Process selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Leaching practice
1
The chemistry of processes aimed at the dissolution of
valuable metals from various feed materials was covered in
Chapter 6 in Volume 1. In this chapter, the various methods
employed to carry out the leaching reactions will be outlined
The choice of a particular leach process and the equipment to
be used depends on the performance that can be achieved by the
various options. The main factors to be taken into account in
assessing leach performance are the following.
• Degree of dissolution of desired species.
• Selectivity of leaching process with respect to the desired
species.
• Leaching time required to achieve the desired extraction.
• Operating cost (lixiviants, power).
• Capital cost.
There is generally an economic optimum that determines the
most appropriate strategy for leaching. Thus, for the leaching of
gold ores, the objective should be to maximize extraction given
that operating costs are generally not high relative to the value
of the product. On the other hand, in the case of the leaching
of low-grade copper ores, the operating costs are the most impor-
tant consideration and heap leaching is the only viable option.
Even in this case, high acid consumption can rule out heap leach-
ing for some ores.

1.1 Leaching methods

The techniques shown next are applied in the leaching of ores
and concentrates.
In situ leaching: Lixiviant pumped directly into fractured ore-
body and pregnant solution recovered.

Hydrometallurgy. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-99214-5.00006-1
Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1
2 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

Heap (or dump) leaching: Lixiviant sprinkled over heaps of

mined (crushed) ore in heaps built over the impervious base.

Vat leaching: Crushed ore fills a large vat that is then filled with
lixiviant and left to leach. A batch process that is not very
common.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 3

Agitation leaching: Milled ore contacted with lixiviant in

agitated tanks (mechanical or air sparging). Batch or multistage
continuous reactors.

Pressure leaching: Milled ore or concentrate contacted with lixi-

viant in high-pressure, high-temperature reactors (autoclaves)
that are generally operated in continuous mode.

Bacterial leaching: A variation of heap or agitation leaching in

which bacteria assist in the leaching reactions.
Some of the more important practical methods used to
dissolve or leach valuable components of an ore, concentrate,
or other intermediate product are summarized in Fig. 1.1. The
actual method to be adopted depends largely on the value of
the material to be treated with low-grade materials requiring
methods to the left and high grade materials to the right of the
diagram.

1.2 Typical leaching processes

The dissolution of a solid species is a chemical reaction that
can be classified into one of several types such as acid leaching
4 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

Ore
Lix. Lix.

In-Situ Heaps Crush Crush Crush

Lix.

Vat Grind Grind

Lix.

Tank Treat
Lix.

Tank

Months to Years Days Mins to hours

Increasing value of material leached

Figure 1.1 Selection of leaching method with grade of feed material.

and oxidative leaching as outlined in Chapter 6 in Volume 1. The

chemistry that is possible in the dissolution of a solid is often exten-
sive and varied and depends on the ingenuity of the researcher.
However, practical considerations determined largely by the cost
of the lixiviant have restricted the choice of the leaching process.
Table 1.1 summarizes some of the more important leaching
processes that are in operation in various parts of the world.
The design and operation of leaching processes are critically
dependent on an understanding and application of the kinetics
of the reactions taking place in leach reactors. In the following
sections, we will show how kinetic information can be used to
describe how we can design and operate a leaching process.

1.3 Batch leaching kinetics

In Chapter 6 in Volume 1, we dealt with the expected profiles
for the leaching of particles for several cases in which the
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 5

Table 1.1 Some leaching processes in operation.

Feed Lixiviant Oxidant Temp. Pressure Equipment

Oxidized Cu ore Dil H2SO4 None Ambient Atmos. Heaps
Sulfide Cu ore Dil H2SO4 Ferric, bacteria Ambient Atmos. Heaps
Cu, Ni, Co, Zn Dil H2SO4 Ferric, oxygen >100 C 1e10 bar. Tanks,
concentrates, autoclaves
mattes
Zinc calcine Dil H2SO4 None 40e90 C Atmos. Tanks
Ni matte Dil HCl Ferric, cupric <100 C Atmos. Tanks
Ni laterite ore Dil H2SO4 None 250 C 50 bar. Autoclaves
Reduced laterite ore NH3/CO2 Air, Cu(II) 40e80 C Atmos. Tanks
Uranium ore Dil H2SO4 Ferric þ MnO2 40e50 C Atmos. Tanks, in situ
Oxidized gold ore NaCN Air Ambient Atmos. Heaps, tanks
Refractory Au ore, H2SO4/NaCN Ferric/Air 150e200 C/Ambient 30e40bar/Atmos Autoclaves/
concentrates tanks
Bauxite NaOH None 150e200 C 20e40 bar Autoclaves
Roasted V ore Water None 50e90 C Atmos. Tanks, columns
Scheelite Soda ash None 200 C 40 bar Autoclaves
Roasted Li ores Dil H2SO4 None <100 C Atmos. Tanks

rate-determining step is either mass transport or chemical reac-

tion. In many real cases (see later) involving ores and, to a lesser
extent, concentrates, the curve of fraction leached versus time
does not conform to any of the theoretical forms. Under these
conditions, we have to resort to empirical rate equations.
Consider the leaching of a typical gold ore for which the
following rate equation has often been found to describe the
rate of dissolution of gold from cyanide pulp,

2

d½Au=dt ¼ k ½Au
½Auf (1.1)

in which [Au] is the concentration (mass gold/unit mass of pulp)

at any time, t, and [Au]f is the corresponding concentration after
an infinite time, that is, it is the ultimate achievable barren con-
centration (mainly “locked gold” not accessible to the lixiviant).
k is a rate constant.
This equation can be integrated to give,



1= ½Au
½Auf
1= ½Auo
½Auf ¼ kt (1.2)
6 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

where [Au]o is the initial concentration. This equation can be writ-

ten in the form
X ¼ K0 t=ð1 þ K0 tÞ (1.3)

in which k0 ¼ k([Au]o
[Au]f) and X ¼ ([Au]
[Au]f)/([Au]o
[Au]f) is

the fraction of gold leached.
The parameters [Au]f and k can be obtained from a small-scale
batch leach carried out under typical envisaged plant conditions
of pulp density, cyanide concentration, and pH. For example,
the time required to achieve a 50% dissolution of gold from a
batch of pulp for which [Au]o ¼ 5 g/t, [Au]f ¼ 0.2 g/t, and
k ¼ 0.05/h, will be given by
t ¼ fð1 = 2.3
1 = 4.8Þg=0.05 ¼ 4.5h
In a practical situation, the time required to fill and empty the
batch reactor will have to be added to the actual leaching time.
This generally is most efficient with large reactors.
Thus, for a batch leach plant to treat 100 t/h of the above pulp
in a tank that can hold 950 t (for comparison with a later sectiond
see Appendix) of pulp, the leach time will be 4.5 h, which will leave
4.5 h for charging and discharging the tank, that is, an average
pulp flow-rate of 420 t/h during these operations.
Notice that in the case of a batch reactor, all of the ore parti-
cles are exposed to the lixiviant for the same leaching period.
Batch leaching is seldom used in practice except for relatively
small-scale operations such as, for example, the dissolution of a
precious metal concentrate (gold and/or platinum group metals)
in, for example, a chlorine/chloride system. The requirement for
accurate accounting of the metal in various stages of processing
is also considerably simplified in batch processing. The formation
of metastable species in solution (such as hydrated silica) may
also be controlled more appropriately in a batch rather than in
a continuous reactor.

1.4 Continuous leachingdmicro- and

macrofluids
In continuous leaching, the ore, concentrate, or other material
containing the metal or mineral to be leached (generally as a
slurry) and the lixiviant are fed continuously into a stirred tank
reactor (CSTR) and the leached slurry discharged continuously
generally into another reactor in series.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 7

The analysis of the performance of this type of reactor de-

pends on the nature of the fluid. Microfluids consist of solutions
such that one cannot distinguish one molecule of a solute, such as
an ion or solvent molecule from another. Thus, in a CSTR treating
a microfluid, all reactants are at their exit (i.e., low) concentra-
tions, reactants entering are immediately diluted to exit concen-
trations by perfect mixing, and the reactions, therefore,
take place at a relatively low rate, as dictated by the reactant con-
centrations. The flow of a microfluid is often characterized as
nonsegregated.
On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 1.2, macrofluids consist of
suspensions of particles each of which is distinguishable and each
of which is an aggregate (crystal in some cases) of a large number
of atoms or molecules. Thus, for example, a particle of ore sus-
pended in a slurry will behave in a CSTR in the same way as a
batch reactor. Thus, the reactant concentrations (in the solid
phase) do not immediately drop to a low value but decrease as
they would in a batch reactor and the extent of reaction in each
of the ore particles in the reactor depends only on the length of
stay (residence time) in the reactor. This is equally true for any
particle in the exit stream. Thus, the fractional conversion in the
exit stream is determined by summing the conversions of all the
particles (Population Balance Method). This is an example of
segregated flow.
Thus, in a CSTR treating a slurry, the solution phase would
behave as a microfluid and the solid phase as a macrofluid.
Thus, in an ideal CSTR in which all particles of the above gold
ore have the same residence time tR (¼ Vol. of reactor/Volumetric
flowrate of slurry), the performance would be identical to that of
the batch reactor discussed earlier.

Figure 1.2 Schematic to distinguish between microfluid (left) and macrofluid (right).
8 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

1.4.1 Residence time distribution in a CSTR

In an ideal completely mixed reactor vessel, an entering fluid
element is instantaneously broken up into tiny fragments that are
uniformly distributed throughout the volume of the vessel. Some
of these fluid fragments are immediately drawn into the effluent
stream while others circulate within the vessel for various lengths
of time before finding their way out. Thus, at any instant, the
reactor effluent is composed of fluid particles that have spent
various lengths of time in the vessel. In contrast, every fluid
element entering a plug flow vessel follows the element that
entered before it without any intermixing and exits the reactor
in exactly the same order. At any instant then, the exit stream is
made up of fluid elements, all of which have been resident in
the reactor for exactly the same length of time. The time spent
in the reactor by a fluid element is called its exit age. The distribu-
tion of exit ages of all fluid fragments in the reactor effluent is
called the residence time distribution (RTD) and is indicative of
the mixing and flow distribution patterns within the reactor.
In theory, in a “perfectly mixed tank”, the residence times
cover the whole range from zero to infinity, although the average
or mean residence time (tR) is the same as for batch treatment,
namely the mass of pulp in the tank divided by the mass flowrate.
Mixing theory shows that the way to overcome the “short-
circuiting” that occurs in a single tank is to divide the same total
volume or mass among a number of tanks in seriesdthe more
tanks there are in series, the higher will be the proportion of
pulp that will have a residence time close to the mean value.
For the mean residence time, tR ¼ V/Q, in which V is the vol-
ume of fluid in the tank and Q the volumetric flowrate, the actual
residence time/mean residence time ¼ t/tR ¼ q.
The residence time distribution function, E(q), is the relative
proportion of the discharge pulp having a residence time be-
tween q and q þ dq. That is, E(q).dq is the fraction of the exit
stream of age between q and qþdq.
For an ideal plug flow reactor, the expected RTD function, E(q)
is shown as the vertical arrow in Fig. 1.3.
On the other hand, for a completely mixed (CSTR) reactor,
1
EðqÞ ¼ expð
qÞ (1.4)
tR
A graphical representation of the expected RTD function for a
completely mixed vessel is shown in Fig. 1.3.
Consider a number of i mixed tanks in series that are assumed
to be completely mixed and to each have the same volume. Thus,
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 9

0.8

0.6

θ)
E(θ
0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3
θ
Figure 1.3 Residence time distribution for a single CSTR.

if the total vessel volume is V, each tank has volume Vi ¼ (V/N).

The RTD function for this situation can be derived and is given by
NN
$e
ðNqÞ
N
1
EðqÞ [ ½q (1.5)
ðN
1Þ!
A family of RTD curves for a number of tanks in series is
shown in Fig. 1.4.
The fraction of fluid that has a residence time between q1
and q2 is given by that area under the curve between q1 and q2
relative to the total area under the curve. These values are shown
in Table 1.2 for several intervals.

Figure 1.4 Residence time distributions for tanks in series.

10 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

Table 1.2 Fraction of fluid with various residence times.

Reactors, N 1 2 3 5 10
Mean t/s Range t/s Fraction Fraction Fraction Fraction Fraction
0.1 0e0.2 0.1814 0.0596 0.0248 0.0046 0.0001
0.3 0.2e0.4 0.1485 0.1286 0.0967 0.0499 0.0094
0.5 0.4e0.6 0.1216 0.1457 0.1480 0.1314 0.0773
0.7 0.6e0.8 0.0996 0.1375 0.1604 0.1853 0.1979
0.9 0.8e1.0 0.0815 0.1189 0.1463 0.1876 0.2563
1.1 1.0e1.2 0.0667 0.0976 0.1204 0.1552 0.2148
1.3 1.2e1.4 0.0546 0.0774 0.0926 0.1122 0.1334
1.5 1.4e1.6 0.0447 0.0599 0.0678 0.0736 0.0667
1.7 1.6e1.8 0.0366 0.0456 0.0479 0.0449 0.0283
1.9 1.8e2.0 0.0300 0.0342 0.0329 0.0259 0.0106
2.1 2.0e2.2 0.0246 0.0253 0.0221 0.0142 0.0036
2.3 2.2e2.4 0.0201 0.0186 0.0145 0.0076 0.0011
2.5 2.4e2.6 0.0165 0.0136 0.0094 0.0039 0.0003
2.7 2.6e2.8 0.0135 0.0098 0.0060 0.0020 0.0001
2.9 2.8e3.0 0.0110 0.0054 0.0012 0.0003 0.0000
>3.0 0.0490 0.0224 0.0089 0.0015 0.0000

It is apparent that as the number of tanks increases, the distri-

bution of residence times becomes sharper with a larger fraction
of the pulp having a residence time close to tR.
For a reaction in the tank that is a first-order process, it can
be shown that no error is introduced by assuming that all parti-
cles have the same (mean) residence time. This is not true for any
other reaction order (see Appendix for details).
The situation with reactions involving solid particles is further
complicated by the fact that a pulp invariably contains solids with
a nonuniform particle size distribution, probable different
shapes, and even a distribution of reactivities. Thus, Fig. 1.5
shows a mineral liberation analyzer picture of the gold particles
(blue) in a typical gold concentrate produced by gravity
separation.
Thus, one could expect to find a distribution of residence
times, particle sizes, shapes, and reactivity such as shown in
Fig. 1.6.
It is not difficult to visualize that the larger particles will prob-
ably have a longer residence time in the tank and may, if large
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 11

Figure 1.5 Distribution of particle sizes and shapes in a gold (blue (dark gray in print)) concentrate. The green
particles (light gray in print) are pyrite.

Fraction
Within
Each
Class

Particle size, shape, reactivity

Figure 1.6 Schematic distribution of various characteristics of ore/concentrate particles.

enough, settle in the bottom of the tank while the fine particles
will probably have a shorter mean residence time. This effect
will, in part, act to compensate for the normal RTD in that we
want the larger particles to have a longer residence time. For
this reason, the complications caused by the RTD effect are often
ignored.
In a real agitated tank reactor, however, there is often a degree
of short-circuiting of the pulp due to inefficient blending of the
incoming pulp with the contents of the tank coupled to inappro-
priate positioning of the feed and exit points. The settling of
larger particles can also often result in a significant fraction of
12 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

the tank volume being unavailable for reaction. This is, as ex-
pected, more prevalent in the first tank in a series and the peri-
odic use of tracer tests to establish the active volume of the
tank will enable this problem to be highlighted.
It is apparent that a full treatment of the kinetics of leaching
of a real ore or concentrate will require information on the parti-
cle size distribution. Given all the previously mentioned compli-
cations when dealing with real leach systems, the added
complexity of the population balance models cannot generally
be justified. The Appendix outlines the application of conven-
tional CSTR theory for the treatment of leaching reactions
bearing in mind the previously mentioned problems in particu-
late systems.

1.5 Counter-current leaching

The previously mentioned leaching processes involve cocur-
rent flow of the ore or concentrate and the lixiviant. While this
is often a convenient method of operating, greater efficiencies
in terms of overall leaching recovery and maximum utilization
of the lixiviant can be accomplished by contacting the lixiviant
with the ore in a counter-current fashion. Thus,
• Maximum extraction is achieved by contacting a leach residue
with fresh, concentrated lixiviant.
• Maximum utilization of the lixiviant can be achieved by con-
tacting fresh, reactive ore or concentrate with lixiviant that
has already been used in a prior stage.
Thus, consider the real example shown in Fig. 1.7 of a three-
stage leaching circuit for a zinc calcine that is designed to
maximize zinc recovery and utilize all the lixiviant while still mini-
mizing the dissolution of iron by limiting the pH to values above 3
in the first stage leach and providing a solution of the desired
composition for purification before electrowinning.
As this is the first example of a typical hydrometallurgical flow-
sheet, it is worth spending some time on the details. Ignore in the
first instance the operations shown in dashed linesdthese are
used to bleed iron from the circuit and are not essential in terms
of counter-current leaching and we shall return to this section
later. In terms of overall leaching in one stage, one is simply
reacting the calcine with acid in the spent electrolyte from elec-
trowinning that contains excess acid generated at the anode dur-
ing electrowinning. However, in this case, in the first leach stage,
the calcine is contacted with (a) solution from the second stage
leach that contains excess acid and zinc dissolved in the first
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 13

Calcine

1st Stage Leach, 50oC, pH 4

Spent L
Electrolyte SLL

2nd Stage Leach, 80oC, 10 g/L acid Calcine, NH 4+

L
SLLL

L
3rd Stage Leach, 80oC, 50 g/L acid SLL

S
LLL Residues

Figure 1.7 A three-stage counter-current leaching process for zinc calcine.

stage and (b) small amounts of spent electrolyte to control the pH

of the solution leaving the first stage. The pulp leaving the first
stage is filtered (or settled) to separate the solution from the
leach residue. The solution now contains up to 200 g/L zinc
and is sent to the purification stage of the plant and thereafter
to electrowinning.
The solid residue from the first stage still contains zinc and is
subjected to leaching under more extreme conditions to dissolve
most of the residual zinc. The solution used to dissolve this zinc is
made up of a solution from the third stage leach and some spent
electrolyte. The pulp from this stage is subjected to solid/liquid
separation and the solution is routed to the first stage and a small
amount is sent for iron removal. The solid from this second stage
is the feed to the third stage in which any residual refractory zinc
is dissolved at high temperature and acidity using the spent elec-
trolyte. After solid/liquid separation, the solution phase is used in
the second stage leach, and the solid is washed and reported as
the final residue.
While this approach is efficient in terms of leaching, the intro-
duction of a solid/liquid step between each counter-current stage
introduces an additional unit operation that can be both ineffi-
cient and costly for pulps that are difficult to filter or settle. The
14 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

introduction of additional water for washing the filter cakes

further complicates the process. For this reason, counter-
current leaching is not applied as widely as may be anticipated.

1.6 Bacterial oxidation and leaching

Bioleaching is the extraction of a metal from sulfide ores or
concentrates using microorganisms that catalyze the oxidation
of sulfide minerals. An associated process is biooxidation in which
sulfide minerals associated with but not necessarily part of the
mineral of interest is oxidized or dissolved. In biooxidation of re-
fractory gold ores, bacteria are used to solubilize an iron sulfide in
which the gold particles are located and thus make the gold avail-
able for cyanide leaching. Likewise, in coal desulfurization, bacte-
ria are used to oxidize the pyrite contaminant in the coal thus
making the sulfur soluble as ferric sulfate.
Bioleaching is used today in commercial operations to process
ores of copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and uranium; whereas, bio-
oxidation is used in gold processing and coal desulfurization.
Since bioleaching is a natural process, an undesirable effect is
the creation of so-called acid drainage from the slow oxidation
of sulfide mineral outcrops and from abandoned tailings dumps.
Bioleach processing differs depending on the type of resource
to be processed.
Dump leachingdwaste rock, low-grade ore, or concentrator
tailings (low grade, oxides, and secondary sulfides) are leached
from waste dumps.
Heap leachingdnewly mined run-of-the-mine (ROM) material
(intermediate grade, oxides, and secondary sulfides) is placed as a
heap on an impervious natural surface or a pad and leached. ROM
may be leached as mined or may be partially crushed and mixed
with acid before depositing on the heap.
Agitated leachingdconcentrates are leached in a tank using
mechanical agitation.
Waste dump leaching uses mesophilic (ambient temperature,
35e45 C) microorganisms, that is, bacteria. Heap leaching of
ore may involve mesophiles or moderate thermophiles (high tem-
perature, 50e60 C) microorganisms. Leaching of chalcopyrite
and other primary sulfide concentrates requires extreme thermo-
philes (>70 C). A photograph of thiobacillus ferrooxidans bacteria
attached to sulfide minerals is shown in Fig. 1.8.
In summary, bioleaching involves
• Oxidative dissolution of sulfides with ferric ions.
• Reoxidation of ferrous by dissolved oxygen catalyzed by spe-
cific bacteria.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 15

Figure 1.8 Bacteria (yellow (light gray in print)) associated with sulfide minerals.

• Use of microorganisms of which thiobacillus ferrooxidans and

sulphooxidans are most common.
• Source of CO2, pH about 1.5e2, temperature 35e45 C, nutri-
ents (N, P, K), dissolved O2 greater than 1 ppm.
For example, the following reactions occur during the bio-
oxidation of pyrite,
FeS2 ðsÞ þ 14Fe3þ D 8H2 O ¼ 15Fe2þ D 2H2 SO4 D 12Hþ (1.6)

14Fe2 D þ 7=2O2 þ 14Hþ ¼ 14Fe3þ D 7H2 O (1.7)

that is, overall,

2FeS2 ðsÞ þ 15=2O2 D H2 O ¼ Fe2 ðSO4 Þ3 þ H2 SO4 (1.8)
N.B. In the case of pyrite, acid is produced and must be
neutralised.
In the case of pyrrotite,
2FeSðsÞ þ 9=2O2 þ H2 SO4 ¼ Fe2 ðSO4 Þ3 þ H2 O (1.9)

acid is consumed and must be provided to keep the pH in the op-

timum region.
Some of the most important advantages of biooxidation or
leaching processes are
• Rapid oxidation of iron(II) to iron(III)
• Bacterial oxidation of elemental sulfur layers
• Lower capital costs for small to medium size plants
• Relatively simple, low-tech process
• Environmentally acceptable
16 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages such as

• Slow kinetics (several days under favorable conditions)
• Sensitivity to process variations (temperature, loss of aeration,
poisons such as cyanide and salinity)
• Limited solids content (<20%)
• Produces soluble iron(III) that requires removal and disposal.
• Bioleaching does not recover the precious metals in the ore

1.6.1 Process parameters for biological oxidation

The plant size is determined by the ore or concentrate
throughput and the rate of oxidation of sulfide sulfur. The relative
proportions of each mineral present determine the process acid
consumption/production, oxygen demand, and cooling require-
ments as shown in Table 1.3.
Major design requirements of reactors are:
• Agitation to suspend solids and, more importantly, to disperse
large volumes of air or oxygen.
• Cooling coils to dissipate heat generated by exothermic reac-
tions and agitation that is not lost by evaporation, heating of
air, and feed pulp.

Table 1.3 Reagent and power requirements.

Oxygen
S, Heat of Reaction demand H2SO4
Mineral % kJ/kg kJ (kg/S) kg (kg/S) Demand kg /kg
Pyrrhotite 36.4
11,373
31,245 2.25 0.558
FeS
Arsenopyrite 19.6
9415
48,036 3.51 0.301
FeAsS
Pyrite 53.3
12,884
24,173 1.88
0.408
FeS2
Chalcopyrite 34.9
9593
27,505 2.13
CuFeS2
Chalcocite 20.1
6201
30,811 2.50
Cu2S
Pentlandite 33.2
10,174
30,644 2.20
(Ni,Fe)9S8
Dolomite 0
219 e e 0.979
Ca(Mg) (CO3)2
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 17

• Residence time
• Corrosion resistance of the materials of construction given
acidic conditions.

1.6.2 Biooxidation reactor kinetics and design

The rate of biological oxidation of a sulfide mineral can often
be expressed in terms of the “logistic rate equation”
v ¼ dX=dt ¼ k$X½1
X = X m  (1.10)

where v is the rate of oxidation,

X is fraction oxidized,
Xm is the max. fraction that can be oxidized, and
k is a bacterial growth rate constant
Consider a single-stage CSTR reactor containing a volume V of
pulp that is flowing at a rate Q (volume/unit time) through the
reactor.
From the mass balance at steady-state, we obtain the CSTR
equation,
X ¼ V=Q$dX=dt (1.11)

and, substituting the previous rate equation,

X ¼ X m ð1
Q = kVÞ ¼ X m ð1
1 = ktR Þ (1.12)
in which tR ¼ V/Q is the mean residence time.
For k ¼ 1/tR, X ¼ 0, and this is referred to as the bacterial cell
“wash-out” condition that is, the operating point at which the
dilution rate, 1/tR, is equal to the maximum rate of growth of
the bacterial cells. Thus,
(a) For three equal reactors in series:
Cell wash-out will occur for tR ¼ 1/k and the system residence
time will be 3tR
(b) For a primary reactor that is twice the size of the secondary
reactors cell wash-out will occur for a total residence
time ¼ 2/k ¼ 2tR where tR is the residence time in the primary
reactor.
This is the basis for the common design of two primary reac-
tors in parallel feeding secondary reactors of the same size in se-
ries. This ensures that wash-out of the bacteria will not occur at
the design flow rates for a single reactor.
Fig. 1.9 illustrates this phenomenon for a bioleach reactor in
which a refractory gold concentrate is oxidized. The gold recovery
shown is that obtained by cyanidation of the residue from biolog-
ical oxidation. You should attempt to interpret the operating
18 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

10 100
9 90
8 80

Sulfide oxidised, t/d

7 70

Au recovery, %
6 60
5 50
4 40
3 30
2 S oxidised 20
1 10
Au
0 0
0 50 100
Feedrate, t/day
Figure 1.9 Typical biooxidation operating characteristics showing the effect of concentrate feed rate on the extent
of sulfide sulfur oxidized and gold recovered. Also shown are operating lines for 60% (____) and 85% (..)
oxidation.

diagram that shows two “operating” lines at 60% and 85% oxida-
tion. Note the effect of feed rate on the rate of oxidation of the sul-
fide and on the subsequent recovery of gold by cyanidation. Why
does the rate of sulfide oxidation decrease at a feed rate of greater
than about 55 t d
1?
In both bioleaching (or biooxidation) and pressure leaching
processes, the rate-determining step can be the transfer of oxy-
gen from the gas phase to the liquid phase, and, as outlined in
Chapter 5 in Volume 1, this flux(j) of oxygen can be described
by the equation
j ¼ KL ðc
co Þ (1.13)

in which c* ¼ po/H is the hypothetical liquid phase concentration

of the gas that would be in equilibrium with the bulk gas, co is the
bulk solution phase oxygen concentration, and k is the overall
mass transfer coefficient. po is the partial pressure of oxygen in
the gas phase, and H is the relevant Henry’s Law constant.
The rate equation for the transfer of oxygen can therefore be
written as
dc=dt ¼ ðkL A = VÞðc
co Þ (1.14)

in which A is the area of the gas/liquid interface and V the volume

of the liquid phase.
This is often written as
dc=dt ¼ kL aðc
co Þ (1.15)
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 19

in which a is the gas/liquid interfacial area per unit volume of the

liquid phase. This value can be easily measured by several
methods such as sparging a batch of deoxygenated pulp or solu-
tion with oxygen or air and recording the increase in the dis-
solved oxygen concentration as a function of time. A plot of the
data according to the previous first-order rate equation will yield
a value of kLa.
For most agitated reactors used for bio- or pressure oxidation,
the following empirical equation describes the effects of the rate
of addition of gas and the agitation on the rate constant (kLa).
b
kL a ¼ aðP=VÞ Ug (1.16)

in which a, b, and g are adjustable (positive) parameters. In many

cases, g ¼ 1 while the values of a and b depend on the type of
impellor and gas distribution system used. P/V is the impellor po-
wer per unit volume and U is the impellor tip speed.
Typical data are shown in Fig. 1.10 for a 300 m3 reactor fitted
with a flat-blade impellor and a sparging ring below the impellor.

1.7 Pressure leaching

Pressure leaching is generally applied when either
(i) the rate of oxidation or dissolution of a mineral is too slow at
temperatures below 90 C to make recovery economically

Figure 1.10 Performance of an agitated bioreactor in terms of gas dispersion.

20 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

viable. An example is the recovery of gold from refractory gold

ores containing pyrite or arsenopyrite.
(ii) selective dissolution of the valuable component(s) can be
achieved by operation at high temperatures. An example is
the leaching of nickel and cobalt from laterite ores in which
iron is precipitated as goethite or hematite.
This technology can be applied to many oxidation, reduction,
precipitation, and leaching processes. The number of applica-
tions is growing and includes
• Refractory golddacid and alkaline
• Nickel, cobalt, and copperdsulfides, mattes, and oxides
• Zincdsulfides
• Alumina
• Tungsten
• Uranium
The advantages of leaching at elevated temperatures are pri-
marily associated with greater kinetics and higher recoveries.
This enables oxygen to be used as an oxidant with obvious eco-
nomic advantages. Furthermore, iron is generally precipitated
as an oxide at high temperatures (Chapter 2 in Volume 1). The
additional energy requirements can be partially offset if heat is
efficiently recovered from the hot discharged slurry.
Disadvantages include the relatively high capital, operating,
and maintenance costs. In addition, pure oxygen is generally
required from an on-site oxygen plant. Except for iron, selectivity
generally decreases as the temperature increases. In many cases,
the leach slurry is generally moderately acidic and often highly
oxidizing, requiring specialized materials for autoclave and ancil-
laries fabrication. A photograph of a typical autoclave used for the
oxidation of gold concentrates is shown in Fig. 1.11.
Various pressure hydrometallurgical processes are now widely
used on a range of ores and concentrates with operating condi-
tions, which range up to 260 C and 5000 kPa. These plants have
convincingly demonstrated to the metallurgical industry that
pressure oxidation on a large scale (in excess of 2000 t/d of feed
per autoclave) is a reliable, efficient, and economic process. The
confidence developed within the industry as a result of the suc-
cessful large-scale application of pressure oxidation, particularly
in the gold industry, has led to the rapid expansion of the number
of operating and planned pressure acid leach plants. This, in turn,
will possibly result in the application of this technology in other
base metal areas, particularly copper.
The most significant advance in the recovery of zinc from pri-
mary concentrates has been the pressure-leach process devel-
oped in Canada and now used in a number of plants. It is
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 21

Figure 1.11 Top of a multicompartment pressure leach autoclave showing

agitators and observation portholes.

significant to note that this process was developed primarily to

address the environmental problems associated with the roasting
of sulfide ores and the disposal of sulfuric acid and hazardous
solid residues.
In a typical zinc pressure leach plant, reground zinc concen-
trates are pumped into the autoclaves with cell house acid and
oxygen. The autoclave conditions are controlled at about 150 C
and 1.4 MPa pressure. Elemental sulfur is separated from a
plumbo-jarosite leach residue in a series of flotation cells. After
remelting and hot filtration, the elemental sulfur is shipped to
markets. The slurry of zinc sulfate solution and leach residues is
preferably pumped to a nearby oxide leach plant for further
processing.
The use of pressure oxidation for copper concentrates has not
developed to the same extent as zinc despite considerable
research and development work on several different processing
options that differ primarily on the temperature of operation
and the particle size of the feed materials. The main distinction
revolves around the deportment of sulfur as shown by the two
equations
CuFeS2 þ 1.25O2 þ 5Hþ ¼ Cu2þ þ Fe3þ þ 2S
þ 2.5H2 O ðbelow 150o CÞ (1.17)

CuFeS2 þ 4.25O2 þ Hþ ¼ Cu2þ þ Fe3þ þ 2SO2

4

þ 0.5H2 O ðabove 200o CÞ (1.18)

22 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

Thus, in the first case, elemental sulfur is the product while

oxidation to sulfate occurs in the second case. In most cases,
the products are a mixture of sulfur and sulfate with the former
predominating at low temperatures and low pH while sulfate is
formed at higher temperatures and higher pH values.
The optimum temperature for leaching is a compromise be-
tween the desirability of forming elemental sulfur and reduced ki-
netics at lower temperatures. Another problem with the
formation of elemental sulfur is that it melts at about 110 C
and will coat unleached sulfide particles if the temperature is
above the melting point. It has, however, been found that the
addition of dispersants such as lignin sulfonates and quebracho
can disperse the sulfur and minimize this effect for those pro-
cesses carried out at about 150 C. Very little sulfur is formed at
the highest temperatures.
As shown in Chapter 10, precipitation of ferric ions at high
temperatures as goethite or hematite can be accomplished at
relatively low pH values and the previous reactions can be written
as (for goethite)
CuFeS2 þ 1.25O2 þ 2Hþ ¼ Cu2þ þ FeOOH þ 2S þ 0.5H2 O (1.19)
þ
CuFeS2 þ 4.25O2 þ 1.5H2 O ¼ Cu2þ þ FeOOH þ 2SO2

4 þ 2H
(1.20)
Note that Eq. (1.20) shows that this reaction produces acid that
will need to be neutralized or used elsewhere in the plant. This is
useful if the pressure leach plant is located close to a heap leach
operation that will consume the acid. The consumption of oxygen
can be quite significant. Thus, for the formation of elemental S,
1.25 mol O2 is required per mole Cu (0.63 t O2 per t Cu), while sul-
fate production requires 2.15 t O2 per t Cu.
Although the major application of high temperature/pressure
processing has been in the area of oxidation and/or leaching, the
use of pressure reduction is well known in the nickel industry, is
used for the reduction/precipitation of primary metallic products
and impurities in the uranium and platinum industries and has
been extensively researched as a means of precipitating metal ox-
ides and other compounds under hydrothermal conditions.
The use of pressure leaching is also being considered for
uranium leaching in preference to atmospheric leaching for
enhanced overall uranium recovery. In addition to higher recov-
eries, pressure leaching reduces the consumption of sulfuric acid
due to the oxidation of pyrite if present in the ore, eliminates the
need for an oxidant such as manganese dioxide (or chlorate) as
an oxidant, and reduces the leach residence time from 12 to 24
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 23

to less than 2 h. The precipitation of excess iron in the leach auto-

claves minimizes the amount of iron that accumulates in the
solution.

1.8 Heap leaching

Heap (or dump) leaching involves the dissolution of metals by
reaction with a lixiviant (generally known as the raffinate) that
percolates through a heap of crushed ore or agglomerated mate-
rial as shown in Fig. 1.12. In cases where oxidation is required
such as sulfide minerals, gold, and uranium, the air is injected
into the bottom of the heap. The pregnant leach solution (PLS)
is collected in plastic-lined drains at the bottom of the heap.
As can be seen in the schematic in Fig. 1.13, the flow of the lix-
iviant and air through a heap of crushed ore or agglomerated par-
ticles is complex and mass transport of the lixiviant to the mineral
surfaces could be expected to be important in determining the ki-
netics of dissolution.
Mass transport of solution is relatively rapid between agglom-
erates but slow within the intraagglomerate pores and very slow
in cracks and pores within each mineral particle. Air flow is nor-
mally restricted to interagglomerate channels.
The successful operation of any heap leach depends critically
on the permeability of the heap to flow of the lixiviant over the
life of the heap that can be several years. Thus, ores with consid-
erable amounts of clay minerals that will swell by absorption of
moisture will rapidly become impermeable, and this will result
in channeling of the solution flow and, in the extreme case, flood-
ing of the heap. The ore is generally subjected to a simple perme-
ability test by allowing the solution to flow through a column of

Figure 1.12 Typical heap leach operation.

24 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

Figure 1.13 Gas and liquid flow through a heap.

the ore or agglomerates under a hydrostatic head as shown in

Fig. 1.14. The so-called hydraulic conductivity under saturated
conditions can be obtained from the equation
Ks ¼ L=t$logðHo = ðHo
hÞÞ (1.21)

in which Ho and h (at time t) are the heights of the solution head
and L is the height of the ore bed. Ks has dimensions of L/t and is
commonly quoted as L m2/h. Values for an ore without significant
clay minerals are in the range 103e104 L m2/h while most opera-
tions will use an irrigation rate for the lixiviant of between 2 and
10 L m2/h.

1.8.1 Copper
The heap leaching of copper has become a major processing
option for low-grade (less than 1% copper) ores. Generally, cop-
per orebodies contain both sulfide and oxide copper mineraliza-
tion. The majority of the oxide copper occurs in a supergene
enrichment zone overlying deeper primary sulfide mineraliza-
tion. The main oxide minerals are malachite, azurite, tenorite,
brochantite, and chrysocolla, and the secondary copper sulfides
consist primarily of chalcocite, covellite, and bornite. Primary sul-
fides are pyrite, chalcopyrite, enargite, and molybdenite.
The flowsheet shown in Fig. 1.15 is generally applicable to the
heap leaching of copper ores followed by solvent extraction and
electrowinning to produce high-grade copper cathodes.
There are four major processing components:
• A crushing plant reduces ore size to between 6 and 20 mm.
• In some cases the crushed ore is agglomerated to increase
permeability while using small ore particles for more rapid
leaching.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 25

Figure 1.14 Estimation of hydraulic conductivity of a simulated heap of ore.

Figure 1.15 Flowsheet for heap leaching of copper.

26 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

• A heap-leach operation dissolves the copper, using chemical

and bacteriological agents.
• A solvent extraction plant concentrates and purifies the dis-
solved copper in the leach solutions.
• An electrowinning plant produces high-grade, high-quality
cathode copper.
A photograph of a copper heap leaching plant is shown in
Fig. 1.16.
Heap leaching of ore uses dynamic (heaps are removed after
leaching and replaced by new heaps) stacking in 6e8 m lifts
and chemical and bacteriological dissolution of copper through
consecutive lifts from the top to the bottom of the heap. Copper
is recovered from the oxides by sulfuric acid in the circulating
leach solutions, and from sulfides by bioleaching using bacteria
naturally present in the ore. Air is required to be injected into
the heaps if the sulfide content is high. The pregnant solution
containing the dissolved copper flows to the solvent-extraction
plant (see Chapter 4). Solvent extraction mixer settlers recover
90% of the copper from the pregnant leach solution. The remain-
ing 10% is recycled to the heap leach in the raffinate from solvent
extraction that also contains acid generated in the SX process.
A typical profile of copper recovered from an oxide ore as a func-
tion of time is shown in Fig. 1.17. The recovery in oxide heaps
is such that about 80% of the copper is recovered in

Figure 1.16 Copper heap leaching pads and dumps.

 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 27

Figure 1.17 Typical profile for

recovery of copper and acid
consumption in a heap
leach operation.

200e300 days. In the case of heaps constructed with multiple lifts,

the lower lifts are, of course, exposed to lixiviant for considerably
longer periods. Also shown is the cumulative consumption of acid
(as kg H2SO4 per tonne of ore).
In terms of the economics of extraction, the consumption of
acid by gangue minerals in the ore is of some importance, and
Table 1.4 summarizes some of the more important gangue min-
erals encountered in copper ores and the maximum acid

Table 1.4 Gangue minerals and maximum acid consumption.

Acid
Mineral Formula Consumption kg /t/%
Calcite CaCO3 10
Biotite K(Mg,Fe)3AlSi3O10(OH)2 10
Chlorite (Mg,Fe)5Al2Si3O10(OH)8 10
Kaolinite Al2Si2O5(OH)4 10
Albite NaAlSi3O8 7
Feldspar KAlSi3O8 7
Sericite KAl3Si3O10(OH)2 12
28 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

consumption in terms of kg H2SO4 per tonne ore per percent min-

eral in the ore. The consumption of acid increases significantly as
the acid concentration in the lixiviant solution increases because
the rate of reaction with the gangue minerals increases with
acidity.
In the case of sulfide minerals, bacterially assisted heap leach-
ing can yield good recoveries for chalcocite while covellite re-
quires longer times of in excess of 400 days. The development
of a heap leach process for primary copper minerals such as chal-
copyrite and enargite remains an elusive target.

1.8.2 Gold
The process for heap leaching of gold ores is similar to that
for copper except that the lixiviant is alkaline cyanide solution.
The pregnant solution is pumped to the gold recovery
plant where suspended solids are removed and the solution is
then treated in either a conventional MerrilleCrowe precipitation
circuit or, more commonly, a series of columns containing acti-
vated carbon for adsorption of the aurocyanide ion that is then
eluted and electrowon in a typical carbon-in-column circuit
(see Chapter 5). The cyanide concentration and pH in the barren
solution from gold recovery are adjusted and recycled to the
heap.
Heap leaching generally requires 60e90 days for processing
ore that could be leached in 24 h in a conventional agitated leach
process. Gold recovery is typically 70%e80% as compared with
90% in an agitated leach plant. Even with this inferior perfor-
mance, the process has found wide favor, due to the vastly
reduced processing costs compared with agitated leaching.
The cost advantage areas are largely as follows:
1. Comminution: Heap leaching is typically carried out on ore
crushed to less than 20 mm whereas agitated leaching requires
reduction to less than 75 mm.
2. Solideliquid separation steps are not required for heap
leaching.
3. Tailings disposal costs are quite high for a modern agitated
leach plant. Large expensive liquid containment dams are
required. By comparison, heap leach pads can generally be
left in place after reclamation.
Disadvantages, in addition to lower recovery of heap leaching
compared with agitated leaching, include:
1. The stacked ore must be porous enough to allow the solution
to trickle through it. There have been many recovery failures
due to the inability to obtain solution flow. This is widely
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 29

experienced when ores have a high clay content but the prob-
lem is often alleviated by agglomeration with small amounts of
cement and cyanide before heap stacking.
2. In areas of high rainfall, solution balance problems can arise,
resulting in the need to treat and discharge process water.
In extremely cold areas, heap freezing can result in periods of
low recovery. Operational procedure modifications such as sub-
surface solution application have reduced, but not eliminated,
this problem.

1.8.3 Other metals

Heap leaching has also been applied for the recovery of ura-
nium and nickel from low-grade ores. In the case of uranium,
both acid sulfate and alkaline carbonate leach processes have
been used. Heap leaching has also been evaluated, with mixed
success, for the recovery of nickel and cobalt from both sulfide
(bacterially assisted) and laterite minerals. The relatively poor
permeability of laterite ores has been the major problem in this
application while maintaining adequate bacterial populations
under changing conditions has made application to sulfide ores
less successful than could be expected.

1.9 In situ leaching

In situ mining is a noninvasive, potentially environmentally
friendly mining process involving minimal surface disturbance
that extracts metals such as uranium and copper from porous de-
posits. To be mined in situ, the metal deposit must occur in
permeable rock systems surrounded by impermeable rocks or
clay strata.
The diagram in Fig. 1.18 shows the general arrangement of an
in situ leaching operation. Injection and production (recovery)
wells are completed in the ore-bearing sand. Vertical migration
of the leaching fluids is blocked by clay or other impermeable
layers above and below the mineralization.
Following the installation of the well field that consists of
many injections and generally fewer production wells, a
suitable lixiviant is delivered to the mineralized strata through
the injection wells. Production wells, located around the injection
wells, collect the pregnant leach solution and pump it to the
surface.
A centralized ion-exchange or solvent extraction facility
extracts the valuable metal from the pregnant solution. The
30 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

Figure 1.18 Schematic for in situ leaching.

barren lixiviant is regenerated and recirculated for continued

leaching.
In situ recovery has several advantages over conventional
mining/processing operations. First, the environmental impact
is minimal, as the affected water is restored at the conclusion
of mining. Second, it is lower cost, allowing low-grade
deposits to be economically treated. Finally, the method is safe
and proven, resulting in minimal employee exposure to health
risks.
To date, the main application has been in the recovery of ura-
nium from sandstone deposits. Both acid and alkaline lixiviants
are employed. Other potential options are for the recovery of
copper and nickel although there have not been successful,
long-term applications.

1.10 Leaching of gold and silver

The most widespread application of hydrometallurgy in the
industry is the recovery of gold by the cyanidation process. For
this reason, more attention will be focused on this process.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 31

1.10.1 Gold cyanidation

As described in Chapter 6 in Volume 1, the dissolution of gold
is an electrochemical process, comprising oxidation of gold by
oxygen and reduction of oxygen to hydroxide


Au þ 2CN
¼ AuðCNÞ2 þ e
ðanodic half reactionÞ
O2 þ 2H2 O þ 4e
¼ 4OH
ðcathodic half reactionÞ
The cyanidation of gold is a heterogeneous reaction involving
a solid reacting with a gas and an ionic reagent producing a sol-
uble complex ion. The reaction rate is governed by the diffusion
of cyanide ions at low concentrations of cyanide (anodic diffusion
control) and by the diffusion of oxygen at higher cyanide levels
(cathodic diffusion control). The reaction with metallic silver is
analogous to that of gold.
Note that the rate of dissolution is also affected by other fac-
tors such as:
• Nature of ore matrix
• Distribution of gold in ore particles
• Presence of cyanide and/or oxygen-consuming constituents.
• Presence of “Poisons” that can retard the anodic or cathodic
processes.
Recovery of gold into solution by leaching is influenced by the
following main factors:
• Nonliberated gold as a result of coarse milling.
• Presence of refractory gold only liberated by very fine milling.
• Adsorption of gold onto gangue minerals and carbonaceous
materials.
• Short circuiting due to insufficient number of leach vessels in
series.
• Inadequate aerationdoften due to oxygen-consuming gangue
in the ore.
• Inadequate cyanideddue to the presence of cyanicides.
• Inadequate control of reagent additions.
• Leaching period/residence time insufficient.

1.10.2 Cyanide in gold leaching

Leaching is pH dependent. Lime (CaO) or sodium hydroxide is
added to prevent the loss of cyanide by hydrolysis and to
neutralize acidic constituents in the ore and mill water that
32 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

would otherwise liberate hydrogen cyanide. If the pH is too high,

however, the dissolution of gold is greatly reduced. The optimum
pH is around between 10 and 11.
The pKa for cyanide is 9.3. Thus for pH ¼ pKa ¼ 9.31 then
[CN
] ¼ [HCN], that is, the two forms of uncomplexed cyanide
are present in equal amounts. In the presence of NaCl, dissocia-
tion of hydrogen cyanide is increased for a given pH, with the
pKa for the reaction falling to 8.8 in 290 g/L sodium chloride.
Water-soluble cyanide compounds are often the salts of
hydrogen cyanide (e.g., NaCN and Ca(CN)2) and dissolve
completely in solution producing free alkali earth cations and cy-
anide anions. For this reason, solutions of alkali metal cyanides
are always strongly alkaline. The water-insoluble compounds
only dissolve to a slight extent to yield free cyanide and free metal
ions. However, they are soluble in excess cyanide as a result of the
formation of higher complex ions, such as


CuCN þ 2CN
¼ CuðCNÞ2 þ CN
¼ CuðCNÞ3
2

(1.22)

1.10.3 Oxygen in gold leaching

The calculated stoichiometric amount of oxygen to dissolve
gold is very small but there are practical reasons for the dissolved
oxygen (DO) concentration to be maintained at as high a level as
practicable. Most of the oxygen introduced into a pulp is lost by
(a) reaction with gangue minerals such as reactive sulfides and
(b) exits the tanks.
Factors that affect the practical solubility of oxygen include:
• Temperature
• Salinity
• Sparging/mixing efficiency (gaseliquid transfer kinetics)
• Source of oxygen (air, pure oxygen, peroxide)

1.10.3.1 Temperature
Pulp temperatures can vary widely in a gold plant depending
on its location. A change of 20e30 C between winter and summer
is not unusual. The data in Table 1.5 demonstrate the significant
reduction in DO at higher temperatures. However, these changes
must be considered alongside the mass transfer improvement
arising from lower viscosity at higher temperatures. Additionally,
there is also the problem of increasing salinity during the dryer
months of the year when evaporation rates are high and more
processed water is recycled.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 33

Table 1.5 Effect of temperature on oxygen concentration in

saturated water.


Temp. ( C) DO (ppm)
5 12.8
10 11.3
20 9.1
25 8.3
30 7.6
40 6.4

1.10.3.2 Salinity
Water quality is an important factor in many gold operations
that utilize highly saline groundwater resources for processing.
The DO content is lower in hypersaline waters, some of which
can be more saline than the example in Table 1.6.

1.10.3.3 Sparging efficiency

Good dispersion of the oxygen gas into the pulp will assist in
maintaining the maximum DO level. Fine bubble size is prefer-
able, and this can be achieved using a number of commercially
available devices that inject the gas into a bleed stream of pulp
outside the leach tank. Alternatively, gas is injected into the
pulp below the agitator blades. Limitations are that the system
is driven by the need to suspend the solids and this does not
necessarily result in optimum dispersion of the gas.

1.10.3.4 The use of air, oxygen, or peroxide

Using pure oxygen or oxygen-enriched air minimizes the vol-
umes of gas injected and therefore the loss of oxidant gas from

Table 1.6 Effect of salinity on dissolved oxygen concentration (air-saturated) at 25 C.

Solution g Cl/L DO (ppm)

Tap water 0.2 8.3
Sea water 19 6.7
Highly saline 50 4.9
34 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

the surface of the pulp. An added advantage of using oxygen

rather than air is that less entrained HCN gas is lost from bubbles
bursting on the surface of the pulp. With air as the oxidant, only a
compressor is required whereas oxygen requires either an on-site
production facility such as pressure swing absorption or delivery
of reagent in liquid form. Peroxide can be provided as hydrogen
peroxide or calcium peroxide.

1.10.4 Agitation in gold leaching

As indicated earlier, cyanidation is diffusion controlled so that
any improvement in the mass transfer of reagent to the reacting
gold surface will result in an increase in leaching rate.
In practice, agitation leaching is carried out on slurries in
continuous leaching configurations involving several tanks.
Carbon-in-pulp (CIP) (Chapter 5) circuits can use 2e8 tanks;
whereas, in carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuits, the leaching and
adsorption occur simultaneously in all tanks so the means of
agitation must also allow for adequate carbon suspension. CIP/
CIL applications require high mixing intensity to ensure good
pulp and gas distribution but low shear to minimize carbon
attrition.
There are two main means of agitating slurries in leach tanks.
In the case of pachucos (tall conical tanks), the air is injected at
the base of the tank to provide oxygen and to suspend the solids.
Most modern plants use mechanical agitation with some form of
mechanically driven impeller. Two common types are the open
impeller, a simple vertical shaft fitted with one or more sets of
multibladed impellers and the down draft axial flow circulator
where the pulp is circulated around the tank by pumping it
down a central vertical tube.
A photograph of a typical multistage gold leach plant with me-
chanically agitated reactors is shown in Fig. 1.19. Also shown is
the inside of one reactor showing the agitator blades and the
baffles.

1.10.5 Reactions of cyanide in CIP/CIL circuits

Despite the relative specificity of the goldecyanide reaction in
a CIP/CIL circuit, other metals and inorganic constituents of the
ore also react with cyanide. Under typical leaching conditions,
hydrolysis of cyanide to hydrogen cyanide is minimal. However,
when atypical conditions are employed, an increase in cyanide
consumption can be expected. Lowering the pH below 9.3 or
increasing the temperature will result in larger losses of cyanide.
 Chapter 1 Leaching practice 35

Figure 1.19 Multistage gold leach plant and inside of a mechanically agitated gold leach reactor showing agitator
blades and baffles.

For example, it has been estimated that the loss of cyanide from
four leach and 10 adsorption tanks is 3.2% of the total cyanide
added. Of the total cyanide lost as HCN, it has been calculated
that approximately 8% is as a result of oxygen/air sparging.

1.10.5.1 Cyanide species relevant to gold leaching

The silicates, oxides, and carbonates of base metals may be
significantly soluble in an aerated dilute alkaline solution of cya-
nide. As a result, metal cyanide complexes of varying stability are
formed. The more important of these complexes are presented in
Table 1.7.
The stability of a complex is important in determining its
toxicity and the reactivity of the attached cyanide ligands. In
the following sections, some of the more common side reactions
of the gold leaching process are discussed.

Table 1.7 Important cyanide species found in gold mining effluents.

Simple compounds
(a) Readily soluble NaCN; KCN; CaðCNÞ2 ; HgðCNÞ2

(b) Relatively insoluble ZnðCNÞ2 ; CuCN; NiðCNÞ2 ; AgCN

Weak complexes ZnðCNÞ2
2

4 ; CdðCNÞ3 ; CdðCNÞ4
Moderately strong complexes CuðCNÞ
2
3
2


2 ; CuðCNÞ3 ; CuðCNÞ4 ; NiðCNÞ4 ; AgðCNÞ2


Strong complexes FeðCNÞ4
3
4
2

6 ; FeðCNÞ6 ; CoðCNÞ6 ; AuðCNÞ2 ; HgðCNÞ4
36 Chapter 1 Leaching practice

1.10.5.2 Copper
The extent to which copper minerals dissolve in cyanide solu-
tions depends on the nature of the particular mineral present. In
some cases, the excessive amount of cyanide consumed by the
copper renders the treatment of gold ore by cyanidation uneco-
nomical. Relative rates of dissolution of some of the more impor-
tant copper minerals in 0.10% sodium cyanide solution over a
period of 24 h are presented in Table 1.8.
Cyanate is formed by the action of cyanide on oxidized min-
erals containing cupric copper and with sulfide minerals thiocy-
anate is formed. For example, the overall reaction of malachite or
azurite with cyanide is


2CuCO3 þ 5CN
þ 2OH
¼ 2CuðCNÞ2 þ 2CO2


3 þ CNO þ H2 O
(1.23)

and that of chalcocite with cyanide is

Cu2 S þ 5CN
þ 0.5O2 þ H2 O ¼ 2CuðCNÞ2 þ SCN
þ 2OH

(1.24)
The (gold) dissolving activity of a solution has been found to
decrease when its copper content is somewhere between 0.5%
and 1.0%. However, a good dissolution rate can still be obtained
if the molar ratio of total sodium cyanide to copper is maintained
at 5e1 or higher and the solution is well aerated.

Table 1.8 Extraction of copper minerals by cyanide solution.

% Copper dissolved (24 h)

Mineral Formula 23 C 45 C
Chalcopyrite CuFeS2 6 8
Chrysocolla CuSiO3 12 16
Tetrahedrite 4Cu2S.Sb2S3 22 44
Enargite 3CuS.As2S5 66 75
Bornite FeS.2Cu2S.CuS 70 100
Cuprite Cu2O 86 100
Metallic copper Cu 90 100
Chalcocite Cu2S 90 100
Malachite CuCO3.Cu(OH)2 90 100
Azurite 2CuCO3.Cu(OH)2 95 100
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
been treated with peculiar indulgence. Above a thousand persons
were engaged in the plot, three hundred of whom had been
regularly sworn to assist in it with all the usual accompanying
ceremonies of drinking human blood, eating earth from graves, &c.
Luckily, the plot was discovered time enough to prevent any
mischief; and yesterday the ringleaders were to be tried at Black
River.

MARCH 17. (Sunday.)

The Cornwall Chronicle informs us, that, at the Montego Bay
assizes, a man was tried on the Monday, for assaulting, while drunk,
an officer who had served with great distinction, and calling him a
coward; for which offence he was sentenced to a month’s
imprisonment and fine of £100; and on the Tuesday the same man
brought an action against another person for calling him a “drunken
liar,” for which he was awarded £1000 for damages! A plain man
would have supposed two such verdicts to be rather incompatible;
but one lives to learn.
I remember to have read the case of a French nobleman, who was
accused of impotence by his wife before the Parliament of Paris, and
by a farmer’s daughter for seduction and getting her with child
before the Parliament of Rouen; he thought himself perfectly sure of
gaining either the one cause or the other: but, however, he was
condemned in both. Certainly the poor Frenchman had no luck in
matters of justice.
To make the matter better, in the present instance, the man was a
clergyman; and his cause of quarrel against the officer was the
latter’s refusal to give him a puncheon of rum to christen all his
negroes in a lump.

MARCH 22.
 Mr. Plummer came over from St. James’s to-day, and told me, that
the “insidious practices and dangerous doctrines” in Mr. Stewart’s
speech were intended for the Methodists, and that only the charge
to the grand jury respecting “additional vigilance” was in allusion to
myself; but he added that it was the report at Montego Bay, that, in
consequence of my over-indulgence to my negroes, a song had been
made at Cornwall, declaring that I was come over to set them all
free, and that this was now circulating through the neighbouring
parishes. If there be any such song (which I do not believe), I
certainly never heard it. However, my agent here says, that he has
reason to believe that my negroes really have spread the report that
I intend to set them free in a few years; and this merely out of
vanity, in order to give themselves and their master the greater
credit upon other estates. As to the truth of an assertion, that is a
point which never enters into negro consideration.
The two ringleaders of the proposed rebellion have been
condemned at Black River, the one to be hanged, the other to
transportation. The plot was discovered by the overseer of Lyndhurst
Penn (a Frenchman from St. Domingo) observing an uncommon
concourse of stranger negroes to a child’s funeral, on which occasion
a hog was roasted by the father. He stole softly down to the feasting
hut, and listened behind a hedge to the conversation of the
supposed mourners; when he heard the whole conspiracy detailed.
It appears that above two hundred and fifty had been sworn in
regularly, all of them Africans; not a Creole was among them. But
there was a black ascertained to have stolen over into the island
from St. Domingo, and a brown Anabaptist missionary, both of
whom had been very active in promoting the plot. They had elected
a King of the Eboes, who had two Captains under him; and their
intention was to effect a complete massacre of all the whites on the
island; for which laudable design His Majesty thought Christmas the
very fittest season in the year, but his Captains were more impatient,
and were for striking the blow immediately. The next morning
information was given against them: one of the Captains escaped to
the woods; but the other, and the King of the Eboes, were seized
and brought to justice. On their trial they were perfectly cool and
unconcerned, and did not even profess to deny the facts with which
they were charged.
Indeed, proofs were too strong to admit of denial; among others,
a copy of the following song was found upon the King, which the
overseer had heard him sing at the funeral feast, while the other
negroes joined in the chorus:—

SONG OF THE KING OF THE EBOES.

Oh me good friend, Mr. Wilberforce, make we free!
God Almighty thank ye! God Almighty thank ye!
God Almighty, make we free!
Buckra in this country no make we free:
What Negro for to do? What Negro for to do?
Take force by force! Take force by force!

CHORUS.
To be sure! to be sure! to be sure!

The Eboe King said, that he certainly had made use of this song,
and what harm was there in his doing so? He had sung no songs but
such as his brown priest had assured him were approved of by John
the Baptist. “And who, then, was John the Baptist?” He did not very
well know; only he had been told by his brown priest, that John the
Baptist was a friend to the negroes, and had got his head in a pan!
As to the Captain, he only said in his defence, that if the court
would forgive him this once, he would not do so again, as he found
the whites did not like their plans which, it seems, till that moment
they had never suspected! They had all along imagined, no doubt,
that the whites would find as much amusement in having their
throats cut, as the blacks would find in cutting them. I remember
hearing a sportsman, who was defending the humanity of hunting,
maintain, that it being as much the nature of a hare to run away as
of a dog to run after her, consequently the hare must receive as
much pleasure from being coursed, as the dog from coursing.

MARCH 23.
Two negroes upon Amity estate quarrelled the other day about
some trifle, when the one bit the other’s nose off completely. Soon
after his accident, the overseer meeting the sufferer—“Why, Sambo,”
he exclaimed, “where’s your nose?”
“I can’t tell, massa,” answered Sambo; “I looked every where
about, but I could not find it.”

MARCH 24. (Sunday.)

Every Sunday since my return from Kingston I have read prayers
to such of the negroes as chose to attend, preparatory to the
intended visitations of the minister, Dr. Pope. About twenty or thirty
of the most respectable among them generally attended, and
behaved with great attention and propriety. I read the Litany, and
made them repeat the responses. I explained the Commandments
and the Lord’s Prayer to them, teaching them to say each sentence
of the latter after me, as I read it slowly, in hopes of impressing it
upon their memory. Then came “the good Samaritan,” or some such
apologue; and, lastly, I related to them a portion of the life of Christ,
and explained to them the object of his death and sufferings. The
latter part of my service always seemed to interest them greatly;
but, indeed, they behaved throughout with much attention.
Unluckily, the head driver, who was one of the most zealous of my
disciples, never could repeat the responses of the Litany without an
appeal to myself, and always made a point of saying—“Good Lord,
deliver us; yes, sir!” and made me a low bow: and one day when I
was describing the wonderful precocity of Christ’s understanding, as
evidenced by his interview with the doctors in the temple, while but
a child, the head driver thought fit to interrupt me with—“Beg massa
pardon, but want know one ting as puzzle me. Massa say ‘the child,’
and me want know, massa, one ting much; was Jesus Christ a boy
or a girl?” Like my friend the Moravian, at Mesopotamia, I cannot
boast of any increased audience; and if the negroes will not come to
hear massa, I have little hope of their giving up their time to hear
Dr. Pope, who inspires them with no interest, and can exert no
authority. Indeed, I am afraid that I am indebted for the chief part of
my present auditory to my quality of massa rather than that of
priest; and when I ask any of them why they did not come to
prayers on the preceding Sunday, their excuse is always coupled
with an assurance, that they wished very much to come, “because
they wish to do any thing to oblige massa.”

MARCH 25.
The negroes certainly are perverse beings. They had been praying
for a sight of their master year after year; they were in raptures at
my arrival; I have suffered no one to be punished, and shown them
every possible indulgence during my residence amongst them; and
one and all they declare themselves perfectly happy and well
treated. Yet, previous to my arrival, they made thirty-three
hogsheads a week; in a fortnight after my landing, their product
dwindled to twenty-three; daring this last week they have managed
to make but thirteen. Still they are not ungrateful; they are only
selfish: they love me very well, but they love themselves a great
deal better; and, to do them justice, I verily believe that every negro
on the estate is extremely anxious that all should do their full duty,
except himself. My censure, although accompanied with the certainty
of their not being punished, is by no means a matter of indifference.
If I express myself to be displeased, the whole property is in an
uproar; every body is finding fault with every body; nobody that
does not represent the shame of neglecting my work, and the
ingratitude of vexing me by their ill-conduct; and then each
individual—having said so much, and said it so strongly, that he is
convinced of its having its full effect in making the others do their
duty—thinks himself quite safe and snug in skulking away from his
own.

MARCH 26.
Young Hill was told at the Bay this morning, that I make a part of
the Eboe King’s song! According to this report, “good King George
and good Mr. Wilberforce” are stated to have “given me a paper” to
set the negroes free (i. e. an order), but that the white people of
Jamaica will not suffer me to show the paper, and I am now going
home to say so, and “to resume my chair, which I have left during
my absence to be filled by the Regent.”
Since I heard the report of a rebellious song issuing from
Cornwall, I have listened more attentively to the negro chaunts; but
they seem, as far as I can make out, to relate entirely to their own
private situation, and to have nothing to do with the negro state in
general. Their favourite, “We varry well off,” is still screamed about
the estate by the children; but among the grown people its nose has
been put out of joint by the following stanzas, which were explained
to me this morning. For several days past they had been dinned into
my ears so incessantly, that at length I became quite curious to
know their import, which I learned from Phillis, who is the family
minstrel. It will be evident from this specimen, that the Cornwall
bards are greatly inferior to those of Black River, who have actually
advanced so far as to make an attempt at rhyme and metre.

NEGRO SONG AT CORNWALL.

Hey-ho-day! me no care a dammee! (i. e. a damn,)
Me acquire a house, (i. e. I have a solid foundation to
 build on,)
Since massa come see we—oh!

Hey-ho-day! neger now quite eerie, (i. e. hearty,)

For once me see massa—hey-ho-day!
When massa go, me no care a dammee,
For how them usy we—hey-ho-day!

An Alligator, crossing the morass at Bellisle, an estate but a few

miles distant from Cornwall, fell into a water-trench, from which he
struggled in vain to extricate himself, and was taken alive; so that,
according to the vulgar expression, he may literally be said to “have
put his foot in it.” Fontenelle says, that when Copernicus published
his system, he foresaw the contradictions which he should have to
undergo—“Et il se tira d’affaire très-habilement. Le jour qu’on lui
présentoit le premier exemplaire, scavez-vous ce qu’il fit? Il mourut;”
which was precisely the resource resorted to by the alligator. He died
on the second morning of his captivity, and his proprietor, Mr. Storer,
was obliging enough to order the skin to be stuffed, and to make me
a present of him. Neptune was despatched to bring him (or rather
her, for nineteen eggs were found within her) over to Cornwall; and
at dinner to-day we were alarmed with a general hubbub. It proved
to be occasioned by Neptune’s arrival (if Thames or Achelous had
been despatched on this errand, it would have been more
appropriate) with the alligator on his head. In a few minutes every
thing on the estate that was alive, without feathers, and with only
two legs, flocked into the room, and requested to take a bird’s-eye
view of the monster; for as to coming near her, that they were much
too cowardly to venture. It was in vain that I represented to them,
that being dead it was utterly impossible that the animal could hurt
them: they allowed the impossibility, but still kept at a respectful
distance; and when at length I succeeded in persuading them to
approach it, upon some one accidentally moving the alligator’s tail,
they all, with one accord, set up a loud scream, and men, women,
and children tumbled out of the room over one another, to the
irreparable ruin of some of my glasses and decanters, and the
extreme trepidation of the whole side-board.

The negro-husband, who stabbed his rival in a fit of jealousy, has

been tried at Montego Bay, and acquitted. On the other hand, the
King of the Eboes has been hung at Black Hiver, and died, declaring
that he left enough of his countrymen to prosecute the design in
hand, and revenge his death upon the whites. Such threats of a
rescue were held out, that it was judged advisable to put the militia
under arms, till the execution should have taken place; and also to
remove the King’s Captain to the gaol at Savannah la Mar, till means
can be found for transporting him from the island.

MARCH 27.
The Eboe Captain has effected his escape by burning down the
prison door. It is supposed that he has fled towards the fastnesses in
the interior of the mountains, where I am assured that many
settlements of run-away slaves have been formed, and with which
the inhabited part of the island has no communication. However, the
chief of the Accompong Maroons, Captain Roe, is gone in pursuit of
him, and has promised to bring him in, alive or dead. The latter is
the only reasonable expectation, as the fugitive is represented as a
complete desperado.
 The negroes have at least given me one proof of their not being
entirely selfish. When they heard that the boat was come to convey
my baggage to the ship at Black River, they collected all their
poultry, and brought it to my agent, desiring him to add it to my
sea-stores. Of course I refused to let them be received, and they
were evidently much disappointed, till I consented to accept the
fowls and ducks, and then gave them back to them again, telling
them to consider them as a present from my own hen-house, and to
distinguish them by the name of “massa’s poultry.”

MARCH 28.
I have been positively assured, that an attempt was made to
persuade the grand jury at Montego Bay, to present me for over-
indulgence to my own negroes! It is a great pity that so reasonable
an attempt should not have succeeded.—The rebel captain who
broke out of prison, has been found concealed in the hut of a
notorious Obeah-man, and has been lodged a second time in the
gaol of Savannah la Mar.

MARCH 29.
About two months ago, a runaway cooper, belonging to
Shrewsbury estate, by name Edward, applied to me to intercede for
his not being punished on his return home. As soon as he got the
paper requested, he gave up all idea of returning to the estate, and
instead of it went about the country stealing every thing upon which
he could lay his hands; and whenever his proceedings were enquired
into by the magistrates, he stated himself to be on the road to his
trustee, and produced my letter as a proof of it. At length some one
had the curiosity to open the letter, and found that it had been
written two months before.
 MARCH 30.
This was the day appointed for the first “Royal play-day,” when I
bade farewell to my negroes. I expected to be besieged with
petitions and complaints, as they must either make them on this
occasion or not at all. I was, therefore, most agreeably surprised to
find, that although they had opportunities of addressing me from
nine in the morning till twelve at night, the only favours asked me
were by a poor old man, who wanted an iron cooking pot, and by
Adam, who begged me to order a little daughter of his to be
instructed in needle-work: and as to complaints, not a murmur of
such a thing was heard; they all expressed themselves to be quite
satisfied, and seemed to think that they could never say enough to
mark their gratitude for my kindness, and their anxiety for my
getting safe to England. We began our festival by the head driver’s
drinking the health of H. R. H. the Duchess of York, whom the
negroes cheered with such a shout as might have “rent hell’s
concave.”
Then we had a christening of such persons as had been absent on
the former occasion, one of whom was Adam, the reputed Obeah-
man. In the number was a new-born child, whom we called
Shakspeare, and whom Afra, the Eboe mother, had very earnestly
begged me to make a Christian, as well as a daughter of hers, about
four or five years old; at the same time that she declined being
christened herself! In the same manner Cubina’s wife, although her
father and husband were both baptised on the former occasion,
objected to going through the ceremony herself; and the reason
which she gave was, that “she did not like being christened while
she was with child, as she did not know what change it might not
produce upon herself and the infant.”
After the christening there was a general distribution of salt-fish
by the trustee; and I also gave every man and woman half a dollar
each, and every child a maccarony (fifteen pence) as a parting
present, to show them that I parted with them in good-humour.
While the money was distributing, young Hill arrived, and finding the
house completely crowded, he enquired what was the matter. “Oh,
massa,” said an old woman, “it is only my son, who is giving the
negroes all something.”
I also read to them a new code of laws, which I had ordered to be
put in force at Cornwall, for the better security of the negroes. The
principal were, that “a new hospital for the lying-in women, and for
those who might be seriously ill, should be built, and made as
comfortable as possible; while the present one should be reserved
for those whom the physicians might declare to be very slightly
indisposed, or not ill at all; the doors being kept constantly locked,
and the sexes placed in separate chambers, to prevent its being
made a place of amusement by the lazy and lying, as is the case at
present.”—“A book register of punishments to be kept, in which the
name, offence, and nature and quantity of punishment inflicted must
be carefully put down; and also a note of the same given to the
negro, in order that if he should think himself unjustly, or too
severely punished, he may show his note to my other attorney on
his next visit, or to myself on my return to Jamaica, and thus get
redress if he has been wronged.”—“No negro is to be struck, or
punished in any way, without the trustee’s express orders: the black
driver so offending to be immediately degraded, and sent to work in
the field; and the white person, for such a breach of my orders, to
be discharged upon the spot.”—“No negro is to be punished till
twenty-four hours shall have elapsed between his committing the
fault and suffering for it, in order that nothing should be done in the
heat of passion, but that the trustee should have time to consider
the matter coolly. But to prevent a guilty person from avoiding
punishment by running away, he is to pass those twenty-four hours
in such confinement as the trustee may think most fitting.”—“Any
white person, who can be proved to have had an improper
connection with a woman known publicly to be living as the wife of
one of my negroes, is to be discharged immediately upon complaint
being made.” I also gave the head driver a complete list of the
allowances of clothing, food, &c. to which the negroes were entitled,
in order that they might apply to it if they should have any doubts as
to their having received their full proportion; and my new rules
seemed to add greatly to the satisfaction of the negroes, who were
profuse in their expressions of gratitude.
The festival concluded with a grander ball than usual, as I sent for
music from Savanna la Mar to play country dances to them; and at
twelve o’clock at night they left me apparently much pleased, only I
heard some of them saying to each other, “When shall we have such
a day of pleasure again, since massa goes to-morrow?”

MARCH 31. (Sunday.)

With their usual levity, the negroes were laughing and talking as
gaily as ever till the very moment of my departure; but when they
saw my curricle actually at the door to convey me away, then their
faces grew very long indeed. In particular, the women called me by
every endearing name they could think of. “My son! my love! my
husband! my father!”
“You no my massa, you my tata!” said one old woman (upon
which another wishing to go a step beyond her, added, “Iss, massa,
iss! It was you”);—————and when I came down the steps to
depart, they crowded about me, kissing my feet, and clasping my
knees, so that it was with difficulty that I could get into the carriage.
And this was done with such marks of truth and feeling, that I
cannot believe the whole to be mere acting and mummery.
I dined with Mr. Allwood at Shaftstone, his pen near Blue-fields,
and at half past seven found myself once more on board the Sir
Godfrey Webster.
To fill up my list of Jamaica delicacies, I must not forget to
mention, that I did my best to procure a Cane-piece Cat roasted in
the true African fashion. The Creole negroes, however, greatly
disapproved of my venturing upon this dish, which they positively
denied having tasted themselves; and when, at length, the Cat was
procured, last Saturday, instead of plainly boiling it with negro-
pepper and salt, they made into a high seasoned stew, which
rendered it impossible to judge of its real flavour. However, I tasted
it, as did also several other people, and we were unanimous in
opinion, that it might have been mistaken for a very good game-
soup, and that, when properly dressed, a Cane-piece Cat must be
excellent food.
One of the best vegetable productions of the island is esteemed to
be the Avogada pear, sometimes called “the vegetable marrow.” It
was not the proper season for them, and with great difficulty I
procured a couple, which were said to be by no means in a state of
perfection. Such as they were, I could find no great merit in them;
they were to be eaten cold with pepper and salt, and seemed to be
an insipid kind of melon, with no other resemblance to marrow than
their softness.
APRIL 1. (Monday.)
At eight this morning we weighed anchor on our return to
England.

YARRA.
Poor Yarra comes to bid farewell,
But Yarra’s lips can never say it!
Her swimming eyes—her bosom’s swell—
The debt she owes you, these must pay it.
She ne’er can speak, though tears can start,
Her grief, that fate so soon removes you;
But One there is, who reads the heart,
And well He knows how Yarra loves you!
See, massa, see this sable boy!
 When chill disease had nipp’d his flower,
You came and spoke the word of joy,
And poured the juice of healing power.
To visit far Jamaica’s shore
Had no kind angel deign’d to move you,
These laughing eyes had laugh’d no more,
Nor Yarra lived to thank and love you,
Then grieve not, massa, that to view
Our isle you left your British pleasures:
One tear, which falls in grateful dew,
Is worth the best of Britain’s treasures.
And sure, the thought will bring relief,
What e’er your fate, wherever rove you,
Your wealth’s not given by pain and grief,
But hands that know, and hearts that love you.

May He, who bade you cross the wave,

Through care for Afric’s sons and daughters;
When round your bark the billows rave,
In safety guide you through the waters!
By all you love with smiles be met;
Through life each good man’s tongue approve you:
And though far distant, don’t forget,
While Yarra lives, she’ll live to love you!
 APRIL 3.
The trade-winds which facilitate the passage to Jamaica,
effectually prevent the return of vessels by the same road. The
common passage is through the Gulf of Florida, but there is another
between Cuba and St. Domingo, which is at least 1000 miles nearer.
The first, however, affords almost a certainty of reaching Europe in a
given time; while you may keep tacking in the attempt to make the
windward passage (as it is called) for months together. Last night
the wind was so favourable for this attempt, that the captain
determined upon risking it. Accordingly he altered his course; and
had not done so for more than a few hours, when the wind
changed, and became as direct for the Gulf, as till then it had been
contrary. The consequence was, that the Gulf passage was fixed
once for all, and we are now steering towards it with all our might
and main. Besides the distance saved, there was another reason for
preferring the windward passage, if it could have been effected. The
Gulf of Florida has for some time past been infested by a pirate
called Captain Mitchell, who, by all accounts, seems to be of the very
worst description. It is not long ago, since, in company with another
vessel of his own stamp, he landed on the small settlement of St.
Andrews, plundered it completely, and on his departure carried off
the governor, whom he kept on board for more than fourteen days,
and then hung him at the yard-arm out of mere wanton devilry; and
indeed he is said to show no more mercy to any of his prisoners
than he did to the poor governor. His companion has been captured
and brought into Kingston, and the conquering vessel is gone in
search of Captain Mitchell. If it does not fall in with him, and we do,
I fear that we shall stand but a bad chance; for he has one hundred
men on board according to report, while we have not above thirty.
However, the captain has harangued them, represented the
necessity of their fighting if attacked, as Captain Mitchell is known to
spare no one, high or low, and has engaged to give every man five
guineas apiece, if a gun should be fired. The sailors promise bravery;
whether their promises will prove to be pie-crust, we must leave to
be decided by time and Captain Mitchell. In the mean while, every
sail that appears on the horizon is concluded to be this terrible
pirate, and every thing is immediately put in readiness for action.
This day we passed the Caymana islands; but owing to our having
always either a contrary wind, or no wind at all, it was not till the
12th that Cuba was visible, nor till the 14th that we reached Cape
Florida.

APRIL 15.
At noon this day we found ourselves once more sailing on the
Atlantic, and bade farewell to the Gulf of Florida without having
heard any news of the dreaded Commodore Mitchell. The narrow
and dangerous part of this Gulf is about two hundred miles in
length, and fifty in breadth, bordered on one side by the coast of
Florida, and on the other, first by Cuba, and then by the Bahama
Islands, of which the Manilla reef forms the extremity, and which
reef also terminates the Gulf. But on both sides of these two
hundred miles, at the distance of about four or five miles from the
main land, there extends a reef which renders the navigation
extremely dangerous. The reef is broken at intervals by large inlets;
and the sudden and violent squalls of wind to which the Gulf is
subject, so frequently drive vessels into these perilous openings, that
it is worth the while of many of the poorer inhabitants of Florida to
establish their habitations within the reef, and devote themselves
and their small vessels entirely to the occupation of assisting vessels
in distress. They are known by the general name of “wreckers,” and
are allowed a certain salvage upon such ships as they may rescue.
As a proof of the violence of the gales which are occasionally
experienced in this Gulf, our captain, about nine years ago, saw the
wind suddenly take a vessel (which had unwisely suffered her
canvass to stand, while the rest of the ships under convoy had taken
theirs down,) and turn her completely over, the sails in the water
and the keel uppermost. It happened about four o’clock in the
afternoon: the captain and the passengers were at dinner in the
cabin; but as she went over very leisurely, they and the crew had
time allowed them to escape out of the windows and port-holes, and
sustain themselves upon the rigging, till boats from the ships near
them could arrive to take them off. As she filled, she gradually sunk,
and in a quarter of an hour she had disappeared totally.

APRIL 17.

THE FLYING FISH.

Bright ocean-bird, alike who sharing
Both elements, could sport the air in,
Or swim the sea, your winged fins wearing
The rainbow’s hues,
Your fate this day full long shall bear in
Her mind the muse,

In vain for you had nature blended

Two regions, and your powers extended;
Now high you rose, now low descended;
But folly marred
Those gifts, the bounteous dame intended
To prove your guard.

A flying fish, could bounds include her?

She winged the deep, if birds pursued her;
She swam the sky, if dolphins viewed her;
But now what wish
Tempts you to watch yon bright deluder,
Unthinking fish?

Alas!—a fly above you viewing,

Gay tints his gilded wings imbuing,
You mount; and ah! too far pursuing
At fancy’s call,
Heedless you strike the sails, where ruin
Awaits your fall.

Your fins, too dry, no longer play you,

And soon those fins no more upstay you;
You drop; and now on deck survey you
Jack, Tom, and Bill,
Who up may take, and down may lay you,
As suits their will.

Oh! list my tale, fair maids of Britain!

This subject fain I’d try my wit on,
And show the rock you’re apt to split on:
Then cry not—“Pish!”—
You’re all (I’m glad the thought I hit on)
Just flying fish!

Beauty, does nature’s hand bestow it?

It swells your pride, and plain you show it;
Though wealthy cit, and airy poet
Your charms pursue,
Church—physic—law—you he fair, you know it,
You’ll none, not you!= .
Age looks too dry, and youth too blooming:
The scholar’s face there’s too much gloom in;
This man’s too dull, that too presuming;
His mouth’s too wide!—
For mending, Lord! you think there’s room in
The best, when tried.

In each you find some fault to snarl at,

And wilful seek the sun by starlight;
Till some gay glittering rogue in scarlet,
Who lures the eye,
Dazzles poor miss, and then the varlet
Pretends to fly.

His flight has piqued, his glitter caught her;

And soon her mammy’s darling daughter,
Whose eyes have made such mighty slaughter,
Charm’d by a fop,
Is fairly hit ’twixt wind and water,
And, miss! you drop!
Then certain fate of fallen lasses,
When short-lived bliss more frail than glass is,
To eyes of all degrees and classes
Exposed you stand,
And soon your beauty circling passes
From hand to hand.

In vain your flattering charms display you;

From home and parents far away, you
See former friends with scorn survey you;
While fools and brutes
May take you up, or down may lay you,
As humour suits.

Oh! mark, dear girls, the moral story

Of one, who breathes but to adore ye!
Let no rash action mar your glory;
But when you wish
To catch some coxcomb, place before ye
The flying fish.

APRIL 20.
 Two or three years ago, our captain, while his vessel was lying in
Black River Bay, for the purpose of loading, was informed by his
sailors, that their beef and other provisions frequently disappeared in
a very unaccountable manner. However, by setting a strict watch
during the night, he soon managed to clear up the mystery: and a
negro, who had made his escape from the workhouse, and
concealed himself on board among the bags of cotton, was found to
be the thief. He was sent back to the workhouse, of which the chain
was still about his neck. But another negro had better luck in a
similar attempt on board of a different vessel. He contrived to
secrete himself in the lower part of it, where the sugar hogsheads
are stored, unknown to any one. As soon as the cargo was
completed, the planks above it were caulked down, and raised no
more till their ship reached Liverpool; when, to the universal
astonishment, upon opening the hold, out walked Mungo, in a
wretched condition to be sure, but still at least alive, and a freeman
in Great Britain. During his painful voyage, he had subsisted entirely
upon sugar, of which he had consumed nearly an hogshead; how he
managed for water I could not learn, nor can imagine.

APRIL 23.
The old steward, this morning, told one of the sailors, who
complained of being ill, that he would get well as soon as he should
reach England, and could have plenty of vegetables; “for,” he said,
“the man had only got a stomachick complaint; nothing but just
scurvy!”

APRIL 24.
Sea Terms.—The sheets, a term for various ropes; the halyards,
ropes which extend the topsails; the painter, the rope which fastens
the boat to the vessel; the eight points of the compass, south, south
and by east, south-south east, south east and by east, south-east,
east south and by east, east south east, east and by south east. The
knowledge of these points is termed “knowing how to box the
compass.”

APRIL 27.
Many years ago, a new species of grass was imported into
Jamaica, by Mr. Vassal, (to whom an estate near my own then
belonged), as he said “for the purpose of feeding his pigs and his
bookkeepers.” Its seeds being soon scattered about by the birds, it
has taken possession of the cane-pieces, whence to eradicate it is an
utter impossibility, the roots being as strong as those of ginger, and
insinuating themselves under ground to a great extent; so that the
only means of preventing it from entirely choking up the canes, is
plucking it out with the hand, which is obliged to be done frequently,
and has increased the labour of the plantation at least one third.
This nuisance, which is called “Vassal’s grass,” from its original
introducer, has now completely over-run the parish of
Westmoreland, has begun to show itself in the neighbouring
parishes, and probably in time will get a footing throughout the
island. St. Thomas’s in the East has been inoculated with another
self-inflicted plague, under the name of “the rifle-ant,” which was
imported for the purpose of eating up the ants of the country; and
so to be sure they did, but into the bargain they eat up every thing
else which came in their way, a practice in which they persist to this
hour; so that it may be doubted whether in Jamaica most
execrations are bestowed in the course of the day upon Vassal’s
grass, the rifle-ants, Sir Charles Price’s rats, or the Reporter of the
African Society; only that the maledictions uttered against the three
first are necessarily local, while the Reporter of the African Society
comes in for curses from all quarters.
APRIL 30. (Tuesday.)
A whole calendar month has elapsed since our quitting Jamaica,
during which the wind has been favourable for something less than
four-and-twenty hours; either it has blown precisely from the point
on which we wanted to sail, or has been so faint, that we scarcely
made one knot an hour. However, on Tuesday last, finding ourselves
in the latitude of the “still-vexed Bermoothes,” by way of variety, a
sudden squall carried away both our lower stunsails in the morning;
and at nine in the evening there came on a gale of wind truly
tremendous. The ship pitched and rolled every minute, as if she had
been on the point of overturning; the hencoops floated about the
deck, and many of the poultry were found drowned in them the next
morning. Just as the last dead-light was putting up, the sea
embraced the opportunity of the window being open, to whip itself
through, and half filled the after-cabin with water; and in half an
hour more a mountain of waves broke over the vessel, and pouring
itself through the sky-light, paid the same compliment to the fore-
cabin, with which it had already honoured the after one. About four
in the morning the storm abated, and then we relapsed into our
good old jog-trot pace of a knot an hour. Our passengers consist of a
Mrs. Walker with her two children, and a sick surgeon of the name
of Ashman.

MAY 5. (Sunday.)
We continue to proceed at such a tortoise-pace, that it has been
thought advisable to put the crew upon an allowance of water.

MAY 7.
A negro song.—“Me take my cutacoo, (i. e. a basket made of
matting,) and follow him to Lucea, and all for love of my bonny man-
O—My bonny man come home, come home! Doctor no do you good.
When neger fall into neger hands, buckra doctor no do him good
more. Come home, my gold ring, come home!” This is the song of a
wife, whose husband had been Obeahed by another woman, in
consequence of his rejecting her advances. A negro riddle: “Pretty
Miss Nancy was going to market, and she tore her fine yellow gown,
and there was not a taylor in all the town who could mend it again.”
This is a ripe plantain with a broken skin. The negroes are also very
fond of what they call Nancy stories, part of which is related, and
part sung. The heroine of one of them is an old woman named
Mamma Luna, who having left a pot boiling in her hut, found it
robbed on her return. Her suspicions were divided between two
children whom she found at play near her door, and some negroes
who had passed that way to market. The children denied the theft
positively. It was necessary for the negroes, in order to reach their
own estate, to wade through a river at that time almost dry; and on
their return, Mammy Luna (who it should seem, was not without
some skill in witchcraft,) warned them to take care in venturing
across the stream, for that the water would infallibly rise and carry
away the person who had stolen the contents of her pot; but if the
thief would but confess the offence, she engaged that no harm
should happen, as she only wanted to exculpate the innocent, and
not to punish the guilty. One and all denied the charge, and several
crossed the river without fear or danger; but upon the approach of a
belly-woman to the bank, she was observed to hesitate. “My neger,
my neger,” said Mammy Luna, “why you stop? me tink, you savee
well, who thief me?” This accusation spirited up the woman, who
instantly marched into the river, singing as she went ( and the
woman’s part is always chanted frequently in chorus, which the
negroes call, “taking up the sing”).

“If da me eat Mammy Luna’s pease-O,

Drowny me water, drowny, drowny!”

“My neger, my neger,” cried the old woman, “me sure now you the
thief! me see the water wet you feet. Come back, my neger, come
back.” Still on went the woman, and still continued her song of

“If da me eat Mammy Luna’s pease, &c.”

 “My neger, my neger,” repeated Mammy Luna, “me no want punish
you; my pot smell good, and you belly-woman. Come back, my
neger, come back; me see now water above your knee!” But the
woman was obstinate; she continued to sing and to advance, till she
reached the middle of the river’s bed, when down came a
tremendous flood, swept her away, and she never was heard of
more; while Mammy Luna warned the other negroes never to take
the property of another; always to tell the truth; and, at least, if they
should be betrayed into telling a lie, not to persist in it, otherwise
they must expect to perish like their companion. Observe, that a
moral is always an indispensable part of a Nancy story. Another is as
follows:—“Two sisters had always lived together on the best terms;
but, on the death of one of them, the other treated very harshly a
little niece, who had been left to her care, and made her a common
drudge to herself and her daughter. One day the child having broken
a water-jug, was turned out of the house, and ordered not to return
till she could bring back as good a one. As she was going along,
weeping, she came to a large cotton-tree, under which was sitting
an old woman without a head. I suppose this unexpected sight
made her gaze rather too earnestly, for the old woman immediately
enquired—‘Well, my piccaniny, what you see?’ ‘Oh, mammy,’
answered the girl, ‘me no see nothing.’ ‘Good child!’ said again the
old woman; ‘and good will come to you.’ Not far distant was a cocoa-
tree; and here was another old woman, without any more head than
the former one. The same question was asked her, and she failed
not to give the same answer which had already met with so good a
reception. Still she travelled forwards, and began to feel faint
through want of food, when, under a mahogany tree, she not only
saw a third old woman, but one who, to her great satisfaction, had
got a head between her shoulders. She stopped, and made her best
courtesy—‘How day, grannie!’ ‘How day, my piccaniny; what matter,
you no look well?’ ‘Grannie, me lilly hungry.’ ‘My piccaniny, you see
that hut, there’s rice in the pot, take it, and yam-yam me; but if you
see one black puss, mind you give him him share.’ The child
hastened to profit by the permission; the ‘one black puss’ failed not
to make its appearance, and was served first to its portion of rice,
after which it departed; and the child had but just finished her meal,
when the mistress of the hut entered, and told her that she might
help herself to three eggs out of the fowl-house, but that she must
not take any of the talking ones: perhaps, too, she might find the
black puss there, also; but if she did, she was to take no notice of
her. Unluckily all the eggs seemed to be as fond of talking as if they
had been so many old maids; and the moment that the child entered
the fowl-house, there was a cry of ‘Take me! Take me!’ from all
quarters. However she was punctual in her obedience; and although
the conversable eggs were remarkably fine and large, she searched
about till at length she had collected three little dirty-looking eggs,
that had not a word to say for themselves. The old woman now
dismissed her guest, bidding her to return home without fear; but
not to forget to break one of the eggs under each of the three trees
near which she had seen an old woman that morning. The first egg
produced a water-jug exactly similar to that which she had broken;
out of the second came a whole large sugar estate; and out of the
third a splendid equipage, in which she returned to her aunt,
delivered up the jug, related that an old woman in a red docker (i. e.
petticoat) had made her a great lady, and then departed in triumph
to her sugar estate. Stung by envy, the aunt lost no time in sending
her own daughter to search for the same good fortune which had
befallen her cousin. She found the cotton-tree and the headless old
woman, and had the same question addressed to her; but instead of
returning the same answer—‘What me see,’ said she; ‘me see one
old woman without him head!’ Now this reply was doubly offensive;
it was rude, because it reminded the old lady of what might certainly
be considered as a personal defect; and it was dangerous, as, if
such a circumstance were to come to the ears of the buckras, it
might bring her into trouble, women being seldom known to walk
and talk without their heads, indeed, if ever, except by the
assistance of Obeah. ‘Bad child!’ cried the old woman; ‘bad child!
and bad will come to you!’ Matters were no better managed near the
cocoa-tree; and even when she reached the mahogany, although
she saw that the old woman had not only got her head on, but had
a red docker besides, she could not prevail on herself to say more
than a short ‘How day?’ without calling her ‘grannie.’ [Among
negroes it is almost tantamount to an affront to address by the
name, without affixing some term of relationship, such as ‘grannie,’
or ‘uncle,’ or ‘cousin.‘] My Cornwall boy, George, told me one day,
that ‘Uncle Sully wanted to speak to massa.’ ‘Why, is Sully your
uncle, George?’ ‘No, massa; me only call him so for honour.’
However, she received the permission to eat rice at the cottage,
coupled with the injunction of giving a share to the black puss; an
injunction, however, which she totally disregarded, although she
scrupled not to assure her hostess that she had suffered puss to eat
till she could eat no more. The old lady in the red petticoat seemed
to swallow the lie very glibly, and despatched the girl to the fowl-
house for three eggs, as she had before done her cousin; but having
been cautioned against taking the talking eggs, she conceived that
these must needs be the most valuable; and, therefore, made a
point of selecting those three which seemed to be the greatest
gossips of the whole poultry yard. Then, lest their chattering should
betray her disobedience, she thought it best not to return into the
hut, and, accordingly, set forward on her return home; but she had
not yet reached the mahogany tree, when curiosity induced her to
break one of the eggs. To her infinite disappointment it proved to be
empty; and she soon found cause to wish that the second had been
empty too; for, on her dashing it against the ground, out came an
enormous yellow snake, which flew at her with dreadful hissings.
Away ran the girl; a fallen bamboo lay in her path; she stumbled
over it, and fell. In her fall the third egg was broken; and the old
woman without the head immediately popping out of it, told her,
that if she had treated her as civilly, and had adhered as closely to
the truth as her cousin had done, she would have obtained the same
good fortune; but that as she had shown her nothing but rudeness,
and told her nothing but lies, she must be contented to carry
nothing home but the empty egg-shells. The old woman then
jumped upon the yellow snake, galloped away with incredible speed,
and never showed her red docker in that part of the island any
more.”
 APRIL 8.
At breakfast the captain was explaining to me the dangerous
consequences of breaking the wheel-rope: two hours afterwards the
wheel-rope broke, and round swung the vessel. However, as the
accident fortunately took place in the day time, and when the sea
was perfectly calm, it was speedily remedied: but this was “talking of
the devil and his imps” with a vengeance.

APRIL 10.
During the early part of my outward-bound voyage I was
extremely afflicted with sea-sickness; and between eight o’clock on a
Monday morning, and twelve on the following Thursday, I actually
brought up almost a thousand lines, with rhymes at the end of
them. Having nothing better to do at present, I may as well copy
them into this book. Composed with such speed, and under such
circumstances, I take it for granted that the verses cannot be very
good; but let them be ever so bad, I defy any one to be more sick
while reading them than the author himself was while writing them.
This strange story was found by me in an old Italian book, called “II
Palagio degli Incanti,” in which it was related as a fact, and stated to
be taken from the “Annals of Portugal,” an historical work. I will not
vouch for the truth of it myself; and, at all events, I earnestly
request that no person who may read these verses will ask me “who
the hero really was?” If he does, I shall only return the same answer
which the lady gave her husband when, being on the point of
shipwreck, he requested her to tell him whether she had really ever
wronged his bed? “My dear,” said she, “sink or swim, that secret
shall go to the grave with me.”

THE ISLE OF DEVILS.

 A METRICAL TALE.
“Should I report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders,
Who, though they were of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners were more gentle-kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many; nay, almost any!”—
Tempest, Act 3.

I.
Speed, Halcyon, speed, and here construct thy nest:
Brood on these waves, and charm the winds to rest!
No wave should dare to rage, no wind to roar,
Till lands yon blooming maid on Lisbon’s shore.
That maid, as Venus fair and chaste is she,
When first to dazzled sky and glorying sea
The bursting conch Love’s new-born queen exposed,
The fairest pearl that ever shell inclosed.
While love’s fantastic hand had joyed to braid
Her locks with weeds and shells like some sea-maid,
High seated at the stern was Irza seen,
And seemed to rule the tide, as ocean’s queen.
Smooth sailed the bark; the sun shone clear and bright
The glittering billows danced along in light;
While Irza, free from fear, from sorrow free,
Bright as the sun, and buoyant as the sea,
Bade o’er the lute her flying fingers move,
And sang a Spanish lay of Moorish love.

ZAYDE AND ZAYDA.

(From Las Guerras Civiles de Granada.’)

Lo! beneath yon haughty towers,

Where the young and gallant Zayde
Fondly chides the lingering hours,
Till they bring his lovely maid.

Evening shades are gathering round him;

Doubting fear his heart alarms;
But nor doubt nor fear can wound him,
If he views his lady’s charms.

Hark! the window softly telling,

Zayda comes to bless his sight;
Bright as sun-beams clouds dispelling,
Mild as Cynthia’s trembling light.
Welcome to Our Bookstore - The Ultimate Destination for Book Lovers
Are you passionate about testbank and eager to explore new worlds of
knowledge? At our website, we offer a vast collection of books that
cater to every interest and age group. From classic literature to
specialized publications, self-help books, and children’s stories, we
have it all! Each book is a gateway to new adventures, helping you
expand your knowledge and nourish your soul
Experience Convenient and Enjoyable Book Shopping Our website is more
than just an online bookstore—it’s a bridge connecting readers to the
timeless values of culture and wisdom. With a sleek and user-friendly
interface and a smart search system, you can find your favorite books
quickly and easily. Enjoy special promotions, fast home delivery, and
a seamless shopping experience that saves you time and enhances your
love for reading.
Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and
personal growth!

ebooksecure.com