Aiming at the acid selection for the industrial process of copper ore decomposition and improvement of copper recovery, we investigated the influence of different acids on the Cu2+ adsorption capacity of CaAl-Cl-LDHs fabricated by a novel atomic economic route. As-prepared materials exhibited improved removal efficiency in SO42– solution than in Cl– and NO3– ones. It was found that dissolved Ca2+ from CaAl-Cl-LDHs easily reacted with SO42– to form CaSO4 precipitation, further promoting CaAl-Cl-LDHs decomposition, thereby driving higher Cu2+ removal via generation of not only CuAl-LDH but also basic copper sulfate. Therefore, sulfuric acid was selected in actual industrial processes of iron–copper ore to improve the recovery rate in smelting wastewater. CaAl-Cl-LDHs were further produced on a larger scale with a production line of 20000 tons/year, showing satisfactory removal efficiency (∼90%), copper-containing materials (11.4%), and reusability. This work provides a new method to select acids during wet processing for ores to improve the copper recovery rate.