Hydrometallurgy 133 (2013) 100–105

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Hydrometallurgy
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Recovery of nitrates from leaching solutions using seawater

M.A. Torres a, G.E. Meruane a, T.A. Graber b, P.C. Gutiérrez b, M.E. Taboada b,⁎
a
Nitratos y Potasio SQM Industrial S.A., Chile
b
Universidad de Antofagasta, Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Antofagasta, Chile

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The objective of this work is to investigate the use of seawater to recover potassium and nitrate from the
Received 31 May 2012 waste tails of SQM operations. The use of seawater as an alternative to fresh water is an attractive option
Received in revised form 19 December 2012 for the resource-rich northern Chilean mines, especially for those operating in the Salar de Atacama Desert
Accepted 19 December 2012
where fresh water is scarce.
Available online 27 December 2012
In this study, the performance of four leaching agents was evaluated for recovering potassium and nitrate
Keywords:
from discarded salts: 1) freshwater; 2) seawater; 3) seawater saturated with chloride ions; and 4) seawater
Leaching of nitrates saturated with chloride, sulfate and magnesium ions. The tests were performed in columns loaded with the
Seawater same quantity of salt and irrigated at the same rate for a period of 152 hours. These tests showed that
Recovery of salts leaching with seawater provides nearly the same potassium and nitrate leaching efficiency as when fresh
Sodium nitrate water is used. However, leaching with seawater saturated with chloride, sulfate and magnesium ions yielded
Brine approximately 10% lower potassium and nitrate recoveries compared with the tests when seawater was used
alone. In contrast, the use of saturated seawater is expected to yield a geomechanically more stable heap be-
cause most of the chloride-, sulfate- and magnesium-containing salts will remain unleached.
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The most important economic activity in Chile is mining, which is
concentrated in the northern part of the country. The main mineral
products are copper and saline systems (caliche mineral), composed
mainly of natural nitrates (Chong et al., 2007). The region is a desert
with scarce freshwater resources; therefore, the mining sector requires
research and the identification of alternative sources of water. One al-
ternative is seawater, which can be substitute for the limited freshwater
resources in the region.
Sodium nitrate has diverse applications, such as in the production of
fertilizers, explosives and food preservatives and as a raw material for
obtaining potassium nitrates and other compounds (Wisniak and
Garces, 2001). Sodium nitrate is a nonrenewable resource that has
been exploited in the north of Chile since the beginning of the last cen-
tury. Valencia et al. (2008) provide details on the history of nitrate min-
ing and the processing of caliche mineral.
In the processes to obtain sodium nitrate, solar ponds are generally
used to concentrate this salt (see Fig. 1). Discarded salts (also called
harvested salts) are also obtained in this process, which still contain a
significant amount of nitrate ions to be recovered. This study evaluated
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +56 55 637345; fax: +56 55 637109.
E-mail addresses: Mauricio.torres@sqm.com (M.A. Torres),
Gabriel.meruane@sqm.com (G.E. Meruane), tgraber@uantof.cl (T.A. Graber),
pamela.gutierrez@uantof.cl (P.C. Gutiérrez), mtaboada@uantof.cl (M.E. Taboada).
the recovery of nitrate ions using leaching discarded salts with seawater
as a leaching agent.
Among the scientific literature of interest, Padilla et al. (2008),
who worked on the optimization of technologies for heap leaching
applied to minerals, such as copper, gold and zinc, which can be ex-
tended to caliche and waste dumps. They conducted an analysis to
determine whether these criteria present the best conditions from
an economic point of view. The authors examined the variables of
leaching time and heap height for a copper treatment plant. The re-
sults of the study showed that heap height and operational time are
interactive factors and that the maximum recovery is not necessarily
the best measurement of operational efficiency, based on economic
considerations. To model the system, it is assumed that there is a sim-
ple heap with a known mineral, that the mineral is discharged with
an impregnation volume after leaching is completed, that the mineral
mass discharged is the same as the mineral fed into the system, and
that each heap behaves as a simple reactor.
Valencia et al. (2008) studied the leaching of caliche in columns and
determined the recovery of nitrate and magnesium at different layer
heights of the mineral. They analyzed the effect of time and the irriga-
tion ratio and obtained empirical kinetic expressions. They used a sim-
ple mathematical model to represent the leaching process that shows a
good adjustment to predict the nitrate and magnesium concentrations.
Taboada et al. (2012) provided data on the solubility and the phys-
ical–chemical properties of sodium nitrate and caliche in seawater at
different concentrations and temperatures from studies of processes
similar to those studied in this article.

0304-386X/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2012.12.008
 M.A. Torres et al. / Hydrometallurgy 133 (2013) 100–105
Nomenclature
d Deviation function
E Percentage of extraction of the ion of interest
E∞ Maximum extraction
k Kinetic constant of the extraction process
LR Leaching rate
m Number of data
n Adjustable parameter
Greek letters
θ Parameter related to the delay of the leaching solution
in irrigating the columns and leaving them under sta-
ble conditions
With respect to the use of seawater in industrial processes,
Moreno et al. (2011) used seawater for 15 years for milling and flota-
tion circuits. Their operational measurements show that metallurgic
results are not affected by the salinity of seawater. Analytical data
show that the dissolved salt content of the process increased from
36 g⋅L −1 to 46 g⋅L −1, essentially due to solar evaporation. The au-
thors suggested that there is most likely a limit of total dissolved
salts above which flotation operations would not be viable.
In contrast, Gálvez et al. (in press) have recently presented analyt-
ical and phenomenological models for the heap leaching of caliche
minerals in which a comparison between these two models makes
it possible to conclude that the analytical model is better for optimiz-
ing complex systems and the phenomenological model is better for
determining the influence of the parameters.
The scientific literature does not provide information about pro-
cesses that are applicable to the recovery of nitrates from discarded
salts. Consequently, we investigated and compared the possible alter-
natives, conducting laboratory experiments with minicolumns that
facilitate simulation at an industrial level. Four tests were made
using the same material in terms of quantities and composition. The
first step involved comparing the leaching process using freshwater
and seawater. Afterward, the recovery with seawater saturated with
sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate–sodium chloride was stud-
ied. The latter two tests were meant to approximate the experiments
conducted on an industrial level in which leaching under these condi-
tions has two major objectives: first, to provide more stability to a
large heap from an operational point of view, and second, from a pro-
cessing perspective, to leach the elements of interest – in this case, ni-
trates and potassium – in a selective manner.
The results obtained in this work will serve as the basis for defin-
ing a process at the industrial scale that will improve the global effi-
ciency of the process of producing nitrate salts.
Water
Diluted solution in Concentrated solution
NO3-ion in NO3-ion
Harvest of salts in the presence
of NO3-species
Fig. 1. Solar pond evaporation process.
101
2. Materials and methods
The general scheme of the process employed to do the tests con-
sists of feeding harvested salt to a minicolumn and leaching it with
a leaching agent, which in the scheme shown in Fig. 2 is seawater.
An “off” solution is obtained that contains the elements extracted
from the leached salt and the tail salt, which is a depleted material.
2.1. Inputs
The composition of the harvested salt can be observed in Table 1.
Analytical-grade reactives (NaCl and MgSO4⋅ 7H2O) were supplied
by Merck and used directly.
The seawater used in the different experiments was obtained with
an intake collector 200 m from the coast of San Jorge Bay, Antofagasta,
Chile. The seawater was passed through a quartz sand filter (50 micro-
meters) and a mechanical polyethylene filter (1 micrometer) to elimi-
nate solids and microorganisms. The composition of the seawater
used is shown in Table 2. The table also includes the freshwater used
in one of the tests.
The harvested salt was obtained by the solar evaporation pond
process from the firm SQM and aggregated in leaching minicolumns
with a run-of-mine (ROM) size distribution (see Fig. 3).
2.2. Experimental development
Four experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of
leaching with seawater on the harvested salt by maintaining the
same quantity and composition of salt to be leached and changing
the composition of the leaching agent (see Table 2). The leaching
tests were conducted in four 20-liter plastic columns that were
250 mm in diameter and 350 mm in height, with a limestone base
for drainage. Each column was filled with 13 kg of salt, and a flow
of leaching solution was established at 1.5 cm 3 min −1 by Masterflex
L/S precision pumps for 9 days. Four 20-liter tanks were used to re-
ceive the leaching solutions (see Fig. 4) because no recirculation of
the solution was performed. All the tests were conducted at ambient
temperature (297.16 ± 2 K). The tests were conducted for 151.5 h at
a leaching ratio of 1 m 3 ton −1. This time was chosen using industrial
operation conditions (0.5 b LR b 1.0). Leaching solution samples were
obtained every six hours, and potassium (K +), magnesium (Mg 2+),
sulfate (SO42−), chloride (Cl −) and nitrate (NO3−) ions were analyzed
by atomic absorption.
Table 3 shows a summary of the operational parameters employed
in each test, such as the irrigation rate, leaching ratio, mass per col-
umn, column area and leaching time.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Experimental results
For the M1 (leaching with freshwater) and M2 tests (leaching
with seawater), the extraction percentage of each ion, decreased
slightly with seawater due to the presence of a greater quantity of
Feed solution
Harvest salt Tail Salt
Leaching of salts
Out solution
Fig. 2. General scheme of the tests in minicolumns.
102 M.A. Torres et al. / Hydrometallurgy 133 (2013) 100–105

Table 1
Salt composition at leaching.

Description Percentage in salt weight at leaching, %

H2O Na+ K+ Mg+2 Ca+ Cl− SO42− NO3− ClO4− H3BO3 Total

Salt pond 7.9 28.9 2.6 1.9 0.06 39.0 14.6 4.6 0.05 0.50 100.0

Table 2
Composition of leaching agents.

Description Percentage in ON solution weight, %

H2O Na+ K+ Mg+2 Ca+ Cl− SO42− NO3− ClO4− H3BO3 Total

M1. Freshwater 99.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.01 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.00 0.01 100.0
M2. Seawater 96.5 1.1 0.0 0.1 0.04 1.9 0.3 0.0 0.00 0.01 100.0
M3. Seawater + NaCl 73.7 10.1 0.0 0.1 0.04 15.8 0.3 0.0 0.00 0.01 100.0
M4. Seawater + NaCl + MgSO4 68.1 7.3 0.0 2.6 0.04 10.7 11.2 0.0 0.00 0.04 100.0

salts in the original solution. For example, for a leaching time of Fig. 9 shows the behavior of the density in samples of the output so-
151.5 hours, the extraction percentages of nitrates are 94% and 93%, lution taken from the columns for the four experiments. It can be ob-
respectively, and for potassium, they are 96% and 94%, respectively. served that the density as a function of the concentration expressed as
In general, the other species follow the same tendency (see Figs. 5 grams of total dissolved salts behaves in a linear fashion.
and 6). In these tests (M1 and M2), the mechanical sustainability
was affected by the dissolution of the salts in the columns. 3.2. Adjustment of the leaching kinetics
In the M3 test (seawater saturated with sodium chloride ions), we
achieved the objective of not leaching the Cl − ion but at the same The equation used to adjust the experimental data (Padilla et al.,
time decreased the recovery of the NO3− to approximately 88% and 2008) is:
potassium to 83% for a leaching time of 151.5 hours (see Fig. 7).
With respect to the M4 test (leaching with seawater saturated h i
−kðt−θÞn
with sulfate, chloride and magnesium ions), the same effect was E ¼ E∞ 1−e ð1Þ
obtained for the Cl − ion and the SO42− and Mg +2 species. Here, the
NO3− recovery falls to 85%. In this case, the recovery of the K + ion,
in contrast to the behavior in the M1, M2 and M3 tests, falls to 68%,
all for a leaching time of 151.5 hours (see Fig. 8). In contrast, with
the M1 and M2 tests, the mechanical sustainability of the M3 and
M4 tests was not affected by the dissolution of the salts in the col-
umns as a result of leaching with saturated solutions.
As a result of these tests, it can be concluded that the greater the
quantity of salts in the leaching solution, the more the extraction of
ions decreases, but the leaching heap remains more stable, precisely
because of the non-dissolution of the salts that are saturated in the
feeder solution. In this manner, the recovery of nitrates using seawa-
ter is viable in the cases studied, and the recovery of potassium is vi-
able in columns 2 and 3.
The detailed results for each of the tests can be observed in
Tables 4–7. The tables show an increase in density of the feeder solu-
tion from values below 1 when freshwater is the leaching agent up to
values close to 1.3 g⋅cm −3 when seawater is used.

Fig. 3. Size distribution of harvested salt particles. Fig. 4. a. Scheme of the work. b. Equipment used.
 M.A. Torres et al. / Hydrometallurgy 133 (2013) 100–105 103

Table 3
Operational parameters.

Concept Test Unit

M1 M2 M3 M4

Leaching time 152 152 152 152 H

Irrigation rate 1.7 1.8 1.7 1.8 L h m−2
Leaching ratio 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 m3 Ton−1
Mass per column 13 13 13 13 Kg
Column area 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 m2

where E is the extraction percentage of the ion of interest, E∞ is the

maximum extraction, k is the kinetic constant of the extraction pro- Fig. 6. Experimental data (points) and adjustment with Eq. (1) (lines) of leaching with
cess, n is an adjustable parameter and θ is a parameter related to seawater.
the delay of the leaching solution in irrigating the columns and leav-
ing them in a stable condition, which in this case is 22 hours for all of
the columns. In general, except for the leaching experiment involving
seawater saturated with Cl −, SO4−2 and Mg +2 ions, the parameter
E∞ = 100 results in lower percentages of nitrate and potassium
extraction.
The parameters in Eq. (1) were determined by minimizing the ob-
jective function:

 2
m
f obj ¼ ∑i¼1 Eexp;i −Eec;i ð2Þ

The experimental data and the data obtained from Eq. (1) were
compared with the deviation function defined by:

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1  2
m Fig. 7. Experimental data (points) and adjustment of leaching (lines) with seawater
d¼ ∑ E −Eec;i ð3Þ
m i¼1 exp;i saturated in sodium chloride.

Table 8 shows the results of the adjustment with Eq. (1) for all of
the experiments, with a mean correlation coefficient of 0.996 and a
mean deviation of 0.089%, indicating a good adjustment of the exper-
imental data. Figs. 5 to 8 present the experimental extraction data
with points and the adjustments obtained with Eq. (1) with solid
lines.
In Table 8, we can note that for each leached ion, the kinetic pa-
rameter k decreases from columns 1 to 4, that is, it decreases using
seawater and then by saturating the seawater in Cl −, SO4−2 and
Mg +2 ions, which lower the leaching capacity.
The parameter n does not change substantially, except nitrate and
potassium leaching that increases significantly for seawater saturated
with Cl − and even more when saturated with Cl −, SO4−2 and Mg +2.
4. Conclusions
It is possible to leach certain types of salts with seawater,
obtaining recovery rates of nitrates and potassium above 80%, which
is attractive from an economic point of view.
Leaching, whether with freshwater or seawater, is largely the re-
sult of the dissolution of the salts in the heap, which from an opera-
tional point of view could be a serious problem for the mechanical
sustainability of the heap. In contrast, leaching with solutions saturated
with Cl−, SO4−2 and Mg+2 results in a more mechanically sustainable
heap. The recovery of potassium or nitrate decreases by approximately
10% compared with tests using unsaturated seawater or freshwater.

100
90
80
K
70
% Extraction

SO4
60
NO3
50
Mg
40 Cl
30 Equation 1
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
time (h)

Fig. 5. Experimental data (points) and adjustment by Eq. (1) of leaching (lines) with Fig. 8. Experimental data (points) and adjustment of leaching (lines) with seawater
freshwater. saturated in sodium chloride, magnesium and sulfate.
104 M.A. Torres et al. / Hydrometallurgy 133 (2013) 100–105

Table 4 Table 6
M1 test results. Leaching with freshwater with a density of 0.998 g cm−3. M3 test results. Leaching with seawater saturated in Cl− with a density of 1.202 g cm−3.

Minicolumn 1 Accum. Output Extraction percent (%) LR Minicolumn 3 Accum. Output Extraction percent (%) LR
time (h) solution accum. time (h) solution accum.
Freshwater K+ Mg2 + Cl− SO42− NO3− Seawater + K+ Mg2+ Cl− SO42− NO3−
density (m3/Ton) density (m3/Ton)
NaCl
(g/cm−3) (g/cm−3)

Impregnation 0.0 0.00 Impregnation 0.0 0.00

7.5 0.06 7.5 0.05
13.5 0.09 13.5 0.08
Irrigation 19.5 0.12 19.5 0.13
25.5 1.394 20.9 7.5 2.2 3.1 25.7 0.16 Irrigation 25.5 1.398 5.7 2.4 0.0 0.7 7.6 0.17
31.5 1.373 37.0 13.0 4.3 6.1 43.2 0.21 31.5 1.388 19.2 6.7 0.0 2.7 23.8 0.21
37.5 1.346 48.8 17.8 6.4 9.7 55.3 0.26 37.5 1.357 29.8 10.8 0.0 5.2 35.4 0.25
43.5 1.327 57.1 22.5 8.5 13.8 62.9 0.29 43.5 1.336 37.1 14.6 0.0 7.7 43.2 0.30
49.5 1.315 63.3 26.9 10.8 18.3 68.6 0.34 49.5 1.328 43.8 18.3 0.0 10.7 50.5 0.34
55.5 1.309 68.7 31.9 13.1 22.9 73.2 0.39 55.5 1.323 49.9 22.3 0.0 13.7 57.0 0.39
61.5 1.305 72.7 35.9 15.3 27.0 76.7 0.43 61.5 1.314 54.1 25.2 0.0 16.4 61.3 0.43
67.5 1.298 76.1 40.2 17.6 31.2 79.4 0.47 67.5 1.307 57.9 28.4 0.0 19.4 65.3 0.47
73.5 1.294 79.2 44.3 20.0 35.5 81.8 0.52 73.5 1.302 61.5 31.7 0.0 22.7 68.9 0.51
79.5 1.290 81.6 47.9 22.4 39.5 83.7 0.56 79.5 1.298 64.5 34.5 0.0 25.7 71.8 0.55
85.5 1.288 83.5 51.5 24.5 42.9 85.1 0.61 85.5 1.295 67.1 37.4 0.0 28.6 74.3 0.60
91.5 1.286 85.3 55.4 26.8 46.5 86.5 0.66 91.5 1.277 69.4 40.2 0.0 31.4 76.4 0.64
97.5 1.276 86.9 59.3 29.1 49.8 87.7 0.70 97.5 1.272 70.7 41.8 0.0 33.1 77.6 0.68
103.5 1.282 88.3 62.6 31.1 53.1 88.6 0.74 103.5 1.281 72.5 44.4 0.0 35.4 79.1 0.73
109.5 1.280 89.8 66.7 33.3 56.7 89.6 0.78 109.5 1.285 74.1 47.2 0.0 38.0 80.5 0.77
115.5 1.263 91.1 70.6 35.5 60.1 90.5 0.83 115.5 1.282 75.8 50.0 0.0 40.6 81.9 0.81
121.5 1.277 91.5 71.9 36.3 61.3 90.7 0.83 121.5 1.279 77.3 52.7 0.0 43.1 83.2 0.85
127.5 1.281 92.2 74.1 37.6 63.2 91.2 0.87 127.5 1.276 78.6 54.9 0.0 45.3 84.2 0.89
133.5 1.268 93.3 77.3 39.7 66.3 91.9 0.91 133.5 1.273 79.8 57.3 0.0 47.7 85.1 0.93
139.5 1.262 94.2 80.4 42.1 69.5 92.5 0.96 139.5 1.268 80.9 59.6 0.0 50.0 86.0 0.98
145.5 1.263 95.0 83.3 44.4 72.5 93.1 1.00 145.5 1.257 82.0 61.7 0.0 52.2 86.8 1.02
151.5 1.263 96.1 86.0 46.5 75.3 93.9 1.05 151.5 1.255 82.9 63.3 0.0 53.9 87.5 1.06
157.5 1.257 97.2 88.8 48.6 78.1 94.7 1.10 157.5 1.259 83.8 64.9 0.0 55.6 88.2 1.09

The selective leaching obtained with a leaching solution saturated Eq. (1) agrees with the experimental data very well and has an av-
with ions favors the extraction of specific ions, improving the extrac- erage correlation coefficient of 0.996 and a deviation function of
tion process and equipment performance. 0.089%.

Table 7
Table 5 M4 test results. Leaching with seawater saturated in Cl−, SO42 − and Mg2+ with a den-
M2 test results: Leaching with seawater with a density of 1.023 g cm−3. sity of 1.293 g cm−3.

Minicolumn 2 Accum. Output Extraction percent (%) LR Minicolumn 4 Accum. Output Extraction percent (%) LR
time (h) solution accum. time (h) solution accum.
Seawater K+ Mg2+ Cl− SO42− NO3− Seawater+ K+ Mg2+ Cl− SO42 − NO3−
density (m3/Ton) density (m3/Ton)
NaCl + MgSO4
(g/cm−3) (g/cm−3)

Impregnation 0.0 0.00 Impregnation 0.0 0.00

7.5 0.06 7.5 0.05
13.5 0.10 13.5 0.08
Irrigation 19.5 0.15 19.5 0.14
25.5 1.386 22.8 7.9 2.4 3.6 26.4 0.19 Irrigation 25.5 1.394 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.2 0.18
31.5 1.356 34.6 12.9 4.1 6.6 40.1 0.24 31.5 1.386 3.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.0 0.22
37.5 1.338 44.3 17.6 5.9 10.0 50.2 0.28 37.5 1.382 5.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 24.7 0.26
43.5 1.325 51.6 21.8 7.7 15.2 57.4 0.32 43.5 1.365 21.1 1.1 0.6 0.0 41.3 0.31
49.5 1.314 57.4 25.8 9.6 19.1 62.7 0.37 49.5 1.345 30.9 1.1 0.8 0.0 51.5 0.35
55.5 1.308 62.4 30.0 11.6 23.1 67.3 0.42 55.5 1.326 38.0 1.1 1.0 0.0 58.8 0.39
61.5 1.306 67.1 34.0 13.5 27.2 71.4 0.46 61.5 1.315 42.8 1.1 1.0 0.0 63.5 0.43
67.5 1.300 70.8 38.0 15.4 31.2 74.7 0.50 67.5 1.306 47.1 1.1 1.2 0.0 67.7 0.48
73.5 1.295 74.2 41.7 17.6 35.3 77.8 0.54 73.5 1.299 51.1 1.1 1.5 0.0 71.1 0.52
79.5 1.292 77.2 45.4 19.6 39.1 80.3 0.59 79.5 1.293 53.9 1.1 1.6 0.0 73.5 0.56
85.5 1.290 79.6 48.9 21.5 42.4 82.3 0.63 85.5 1.287 56.2 1.1 1.8 0.0 75.9 0.60
91.5 1.272 81.9 52.6 23.5 45.9 84.1 0.68 91.5 1.267 58.3 1.1 2.1 0.0 77.6 0.65
97.5 1.267 83.6 56.3 25.5 49.7 85.5 0.72 97.5 1.280 59.0 1.1 2.1 0.0 78.2 0.69
103.5 1.289 85.2 59.7 27.2 52.6 86.6 0.77 103.5 1.280 60.4 1.1 2.1 0.0 79.4 0.73
109.5 1.280 86.9 63.4 29.2 56.0 87.9 0.82 109.5 1.278 62.0 1.1 2.3 0.0 80.6 0.77
115.5 1.278 88.5 67.0 31.2 59.4 89.0 0.87 115.5 1.274 62.5 1.1 2.3 0.0 81.0 0.81
121.5 1.273 89.9 70.3 33.2 62.6 89.9 0.91 121.5 1.274 63.6 1.1 2.4 0.0 81.8 0.85
127.5 1.271 91.0 73.3 35.0 65.5 90.6 0.95 127.5 1.273 64.6 1.1 2.4 0.0 82.6 0.89
133.5 1.268 91.9 76.3 36.9 68.4 91.2 1.00 133.5 1.271 65.5 1.1 2.7 0.0 83.3 0.93
139.5 1.260 92.7 79.1 38.8 71.4 91.8 1.04 139.5 1.271 66.4 1.1 3.0 0.0 83.9 0.98
145.5 1.254 93.5 81.5 40.7 73.8 92.3 1.08 145.5 1.276 67.1 1.1 3.3 0.0 84.5 1.02
151.5 0.000 94.4 84.2 42.8 76.4 92.8 1.08 151.5 1.270 67.8 1.1 3.3 0.0 85.1 1.06
157.5 1.276 95.2 86.8 44.9 78.9 93.3 1.08 157.5 1.271 68.5 1.1 3.4 0.0 85.6 1.11
 M.A. Torres et al. / Hydrometallurgy 133 (2013) 100–105 105

Table 8
Parameters of Eq. (1) and adjustments.

Exp Ion E∞ k n θ d (%) R2 Leaching Saturated

(%) (h) with in

1 NO3− 100 0.1490 0.6118 22 0.088 0.9975 Freshwater

2 100 0.1267 0.6264 22 0.063 0.9988 Seawater
3 100 0.0543 0.7653 22 0.186 0.9933 Seawater Cl−
4 84.5 0.0134 1.2511 22 0.197 0.9941 Seawater Cl−,
Mg2 +,
SO42 −
1 K+ 100 0.0950 0.7108 22 0.032 0.9997 Freshwater
2 100 0.0848 0.7073 22 0.123 0.9963 Seawater
3 100 0.0441 0.7683 22 0.169 0.9943 Seawater Cl−
Fig. 9. Density of output solutions in function of the salt concentration for all the 4 67.1 0.0037 1.5009 22 0.261 0.9865 Seawater Cl−,
experiments. Mg2 +,
SO42 −
1 SO42 − 100 0.0036 1.2140 22 0.069 0.9991 Freshwater
The leaching solutions with seawater and higher concentrations of 2 100 0.0035 1.2270 22 0.091 0.9985 Seawater
Cl−
ions (saturated with Cl − and saturated with Cl −, Mg +2 and SO4−2) 3 100 0.0021 1.2198 22 0.040 0.9995 Seawater
1 Mg2 + 100 0.0075 1.1155 22 0.217 0.9926 Freshwater
have lower extraction capacities, which are reflected in the lower 2 100 0.0074 1.1042 22 0.244 0.9896 Seawater
kinetic parameter values. 3 100 0.0066 1.0287 22 0.057 0.9991 Seawater Cl−
The use of seawater in processing salts will certainly allow the 1 Cl− 100 0.0032 1.0760 22 0.050 0.9987 Freshwater
company to be more competitive and sustainable over the medium 2 100 0.0026 1.0955 22 0.051 0.9985 Seawater

and long term given the scarcity of freshwater in the Atacama Desert
and the strong growth of the mining industry in the region. However,
a considerable amount of research still needs to be performed to
adapt these results to an industrial process.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the funding provided by CONICYT
through the FONDECYT Project N° 1100685 and CICITEM Project
R04I1001.
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