Abstract: A Mexico copper ore is a mixed one that contains mainly oxidized copper minerals, quartz which is the main gangue and copper sulfide mineral (chalcopyrite)which is easy to float but inferior to oxide copper minerals in acid leaching efficiency and may produce harmful gas-sulfureted hydrogen. The key in this research is flotation-leaching process. The results show that a cooper concentrate grading 19.10% at a copper recovery of 35.02% can be obtained when sodium sulfide is used for activation and butyl xanthate for flotation. The flotation tailings are directly used in the downstream flotation test under the conditions of H₂SO₄ concentration of 1mol/L, liquid-solid ratio of 3, and one hour agitation at ambient temperature of 15 ℃. The copper leaching rate is 83.33% and 54.16% if calculated according to the run-of-mine ore. The total recovery of the copper by both flotation and leaching has reached 89.18%.

Key words: Copper oxidized or, Flotation, Agitated leaching, Solvent extraction