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PreprintCC BYChemRxiv

Beyond Bulk Grade: Mineral–Flow Accessibility Controls Pore-Scale Copper Recovery

  • Arjun Chakrawal1,2,3
  • Maruti Kumar Mudunuru4,2
  • Sameera Nalin Venkat1,2,3
  • Aramy Truong1,2,3
  • Christof Meile5,6
  • Kalyana Nakshatrala7,8
  • Mavrik Zavarin9,10
  • Dipankar Dwivedi11,12
  • Odeta Qafoku1,2,3
  • Satish Karra1,2,3
12 affiliations
  1. 1Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
  2. 2Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  3. 3Integrated Discovery Sciences Directorate
  4. 4Energy and Environment Directorate
  5. 5Department of Marine Sciences
  6. 6University of Georgia
  7. 7Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  8. 8University of Houston
  9. 9Physical & Life Sciences Directorate
  10. 10Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  11. 11Earth and Environmental Sciences
  12. 12Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Open at sourceDOICite

Abstract

Mineral dissolution in porous media is driven by fluid flow, solute transport, and geochemical reactions, yet reactive transport models commonly use bulk mineral abundance and specific surface area as proxies for mineral reactivity. This neglects a key constraint: dissolution occurs only where reactants can access minerals through connected fluid-flow pathways. Here, we use pore-scale PFLOTRAN simulations of acid-driven chrysocolla dissolution to isolate the effect of mineral accessibility at fixed initial mineral volume fraction. Across pore-network ensembles and flow–reaction conditions, copper recovery varied substantially (9–21%) despite identical bulk copper content. Recovery depended on the fraction of mineral accessible to connected flow and on mineral proximity to inlet-connected pores, even when cumulative pore volumes flushed during the 48 h acid pulse were nearly identical. In contrast, Péclet and Damköhler numbers characterized transport–reaction regimes but did not uniquely predict copper recovery because they do not encode pore-scale accessibility. An accessibility-weighted pore-volume metric combined with intrinsic dissolution kinetics explained recovery with R2 ≈ 0.95. Thus, our results show that mineral–flow accessibility and reaction kinetics jointly control pore-scale copper recovery and provide a physically interpretable basis for accessibility-aware reactive transport upscaling.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{chakrawal2026beyond,
  title = {{Beyond Bulk Grade: Mineral–Flow Accessibility Controls Pore-Scale Copper Recovery}},
  author = {Arjun Chakrawal and Maruti Kumar Mudunuru and Sameera Nalin Venkat and Aramy Truong and Christof Meile and Kalyana Nakshatrala and Mavrik Zavarin and Dipankar Dwivedi and Odeta Qafoku and Satish Karra},
  howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15010215/v1},
  url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010215/v1},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Beyond Bulk Grade: Mineral–Flow Accessibility Controls Pore-Scale Copper Recovery
AU  - Arjun Chakrawal
AU  - Maruti Kumar Mudunuru
AU  - Sameera Nalin Venkat
AU  - Aramy Truong
AU  - Christof Meile
AU  - Kalyana Nakshatrala
AU  - Mavrik Zavarin
AU  - Dipankar Dwivedi
AU  - Odeta Qafoku
AU  - Satish Karra
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/11
PB  - ChemRxiv
DO  - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15010215/v1
UR  - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010215/v1
AB  - Mineral dissolution in porous media is driven by fluid flow, solute transport, and geochemical reactions, yet reactive transport models commonly use bulk mineral abundance and specific surface area as proxies for mineral reactivity. This neglects a key constraint: dissolution occurs only where reactants can access minerals through connected fluid-flow pathways. Here, we use pore-scale PFLOTRAN simulations of acid-driven chrysocolla dissolution to isolate the effect of mineral accessibility at fixed initial mineral volume fraction. Across pore-network ensembles and flow–reaction conditions, copper recovery varied substantially (9–21%) despite identical bulk copper content. Recovery depended on the fraction of mineral accessible to connected flow and on mineral proximity to inlet-connected pores, even when cumulative pore volumes flushed during the 48 h acid pulse were nearly identical. In contrast, Péclet and Damköhler numbers characterized transport–reaction regimes but did not uniquely predict copper recovery because they do not encode pore-scale accessibility. An accessibility-weighted pore-volume metric combined with intrinsic dissolution kinetics explained recovery with R2 ≈ 0.95. Thus, our results show that mineral–flow accessibility and reaction kinetics jointly control pore-scale copper recovery and provide a physically interpretable basis for accessibility-aware reactive transport upscaling.
ER  -