Innovations in Copper: Mining amp; Extraction: Producing
Prior to the development of the solvent extractionelectrowinning (SX/EW) process in 1959 (see Copper the Green Metal), the only way to recover copper from an acid solution was by a process called cementation. In this process, copper was in effect quot;tradedquot; for iron by contacting the copperbearing solution with scrap iron.