A successful operational initiative in copper oxide flotation: Sequential sulphidisation-flotation technique
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Beneficiation and Hydrometallurgy Research Group, Mineral processing Research Center, Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) on TMU
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Faculty of Mining Engineering, Arak University of Technology
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Beneficiation and Hydrometallurgy Research Group, Mineral processing Research Center,
Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) on TMU
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Mineral Processing Department, Faculty of Mining Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University
Corresponding author
Mohammad Reza Tavakoli Mohammadi
Beneficiation and Hydrometallurgy Research Group, Mineral processing Research Center, \nAcademic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) on TMU, Jalal AleAhmad, Nasr bridje, 14115-111 Tehran, Iran
Physicochem. Probl. Miner. Process. 2019;55(2):356-369
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ABSTRACT
One of the main challenges in the copper oxide processing industry is implementation of a flotation method to reduce operating costs. Sulphidising flotation is the most common used technique in which a sulphidisation agent is used to sulphidise the surface of the oxide minerals. In this research, the mentioned technique was used sequentially for the concentration of silicate-carbonate ore containing 3.1% Cu (malachite). The presence of 39% Cu in -38 µm size fraction (fine particles) of feed led to poor grades and recoveries in the initial tests. The addition of sodium sulfide and subsequent flotation at three sequential stages was identified as a successful operational initiative to solve this problem in the following tests. The dosages of 1500, 1567 and 100 g/Mg of sodium silicate, sodium sulfide and potassium amyl xanthate, respectively, the conditioning time of 5 min for sulphidisation and pH=9.72 were chosen as optimum operational conditions using central composite design (CCD) method of experiments design. The rougher concentrate with 9.28% grade and 81.15% recovery was obtained under these conditions. The grade of obtained concentrate was reached to 24% in the cleaner step. The total recovery of both steps was over 74%.