Abstract: The copper grade of refractory copper oxide ores with low grade and high binding rate in Zambia is 1.56%. The major copper ores are cuprite， chalcopyrite， covellite and brochantite. The major gangue minerals are quartz， mica， ankerite and so on. The oxidation rate of copper reaches up to 82.85%， mainly combined copper oxide. Copper sulfide accounts for only 17.15%， mainly with primary copper sulfide ores. In order to determine the reasonable development and utilization technology of the ores， systematic sulfuric acid leaching experiments were carried out. The results showed that: ①Improving the fineness of leaching samples， increasing the leaching time， improving the leaching temperature， and increasing the liquid-solid mass ratio and stirring speed are beneficial to improve the leaching effect of copper oxide ores.② In the case of grinding fineness of -0.074 mm 60%， sulfuric acid concentration of 50 g/L， liquid-solid mass ratio of 3， leaching temperature at 65 ℃， stirring speed at 300 r/min， and the leaching time for 120 min， the leaching rate of copper is up to 78.64%.③ Sulfuric acid leaching kinetics of the ores is controlled by the chemical reaction model， and the apparent activation energy of the reaction is 37.83 kJ/mol.

Key words: Copper oxide ores, Sulfuric acid leaching, Copper leaching rate, Kinetics, Apparent activation energy