Pregnant leach solution or pregnant liquor solution (PLS) is

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

ic metal-laden

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

generated from stockpile leaching and

heap leaching Heap leaching is an industrial mining process used to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore using a series of chemical reactions that absorb specific minerals and re-separate them after their division from other e ...

. Pregnant leach solution is used in the solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW) process. The portion of an original

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...

that remains after other components have been dissolved by a

solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...

is called ''

raffinate In chemical separation terminology, the raffinate (from French ''raffiner'', to refine) is a product which has had a component or components removed. The product having the removed materials is referred to as the extract. For example, in solvent ex ...

''.

References

Metallurgical processes {{Industry-stub