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By D. H. Xiong

Low grade oxidized iron ores are usually not economic to utilize. However, the development of SLon magnetic separators and other new technologies make the process cost lower and lower. In this paper, several low-grade oxidized iron ore process flowsheets are introduced. The key procedure is that at the early stage, SLon magnetic separators are applied to discharge as more tails as possible with very low cost, only a small portion of rough concentrate going to the cleaning stage, showing the new technologies are profitable for such iron ores.

Jan 1, 2014

By O. A. Bascur

It is difficult to analyse the economics without an integrated view of mine transactions, stockpile inventories, process flows and assays. The lack of integration of mining and metallurgical information with sufficient detail to analyse and act is a problem. However, to take action requires real time information from manufacturing assets, corrected for gross errors from trucks, shovels, conveyors, faulty sensors, bad instrument calibration. Validation methods use process models to identify inconsistent information in the case of corrupt actionable information. This paper presents new strategies that transform the data into business information for continuous improvement and optimization. This technical presentation will review recent implementations enabling large metallurgical complexes to improve their data quality for overall production and energy management. A competence center emerges as an enabler for implementing operational intelligence. The evolution of Web services to troubleshoot plant information and to collaborate at the enterprise level is presented.

Jan 1, 2014

In recent years, coal beneficiation has gotten considerable attention. Selective oil agglomeration has been accepted as the best method to produce clean coal with a high removal of pyrite sulphur. In this study, spherical oil agglomeration of Datong coal fines was carried out using diesel oil as a bridging liquid. The oil agglomeration has a surface properties based on coal cleaning technique. The effects of fundamental parameters have been investigated including the concentration of bridging liquid, the size of coal particle, the solid content of slurry, the agitation time and rate, pH, surfactants on the agglomeration performance and various salts on the ash rejection and removal of pyrite of the agglomerated products. The optimum conditions of particle size, diesel concentration, solid content, agitation speed and time, pH and the dosage of active agent have been determined as less than 8µm, 20wt%, 1200r/min and 10 minutes, 7.5g/t and 100g/t, respectively. Under these conditions the ash content in the products can be achieved 1.5% below, the ash rejection was up to 92%. It has been observed that ionic strength of the aqueous medium affects the agglomeration performance. The precombustion coal cleaning process based on improved selective agglomeration results in high ash and pyrite sulphur removals. Over 80% removal of pyrite sulphur can be achieved from run-of-mine coals by offering a more cost-effective sulphur reduction solution rather than any other SO2 removal technology. In addition, the removal of pyrite sulphur is very necessary for not only the prevention of environmental pollution but also economical reasons.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. Bhartia

India is the 5th largest producer of steel in the world and is slated to produce more than 180 Mt by 2020. Expectedly about 50 % of this would be through the Blast furnace route and the rest through Sponge iron / DRI route. Considering that there will not be any major change in iron making technology by that time, the Blast operation would require lump ore (10-40mm) with around 64% Fe grade and sinter fines (<10mm) with 60% Fe (min) as its feed. DRI process would need calibrated ore of size 5-18 mm as the most suitable size of feed. It is also expected that of the total requirement of ore for the DRI route a significant part would be DRI pellets. In India, there is considerable debate going on regarding the technology to be adopted for the processing of iron ore and there is a lack of clear consensus. The above scenario indicates that the processing requirement of iron ore in the country would involve both washing technology as well as beneficiation technology. CDE Asia Ltd is in the forefront of iron ore processing in the country and the experience gained by the company over the last few years of functioning has led the company to believe that route to be adopted depends on the end product requirement and the starting grade of the feed. Keeping in mind the nature of the feed required for the Blast furnace & DRI operation; it is obvious that good washing technology would be highly beneficial to the iron ore industry. Depending on the grade of ore available the limits of washing will be decided and equipment for lump ore beneficiation such as jigs could be incorporated into the washing circuit. Scrubbing of ore either before washing or selectively scrubbing the lumps could be necessary. Very low grade ore and jig rejects would be required to be totally ground and beneficiated for the production of pellet feed in order to utilize the iron ore resources entirely. Another source of ore for pelletisation would be slimes generated from the washing process as well as the huge quantities already available in the tailings dams in the operating mines. Deslimimg and magnetic route of beneficiation could release at 30-40% of the Fe locked up in these tailings ponds/dams. The paper describes the concept with examples from operating plants and proposes how the adoption could be engineered through test work and proper plan of integration. Keywords: washing, beneficiation, iron ore, lumps, sinter fines, pellets, jigs, screens, evowash, nanowash, thickeners, log washers, drum scrubbers

Sep 1, 2012

Under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy, a project was completed in 2005, which studied the use of a special pneumatic capsule pipeline (PCP) system, driven by linear induction motor (LIM), for transporting minerals and/or mine wastes. In this study, the pipeline is a rectangular tube of 1m × 1m cross section. The capsules are similar to railroad cars running on small rails imbedded in the tube. A LIM is placed AT the entrance of the tube to transfer power electro-magnetically from the LIM to capsules. The capsules going through the LIM, propelled by the electromagnetic field generated by the LIM, move faster than the air and hence impart energy into the airflow. This in turn pushes the capsules in the tube forward. When the tube is long (say longer than 10 km), additional LIMs may be needed along the tube to serve as booster pumps. An advantage of using LIMs instead of blowers as used in ordinary PCPs is that capsules can pass through the LIMs unhindered. This enables the use of booster pumps for long tubes. It also enables PCP to achieve much higher cargo throughput than that of PCPs using blowers, thereby reducing unit cost ($ per ton-km). Advantages of using capsules with steel wheels running on steel rails in the tubes including: (1) contact friction is only about one-fifth of that using rubber tires, thereby conserving energy, (2) capsules can run at a much higher speed than those using rubber tires without overheating and damaging the tires, and (3) rails make capsule motion control simple; they restrict lateral movement of capsules, and make branching easy-by using standard rail crossing equipment. This advanced PCP system combines the advantages of LIM with the advantages of rails, resulting in a super-efficient tube system having throughputs an order of magnitude greater than that of conventional PCPs, and having an energy efficiency better than railroad transport. Analysis shows that the system is highly cost-effective when throughput is high-at least 5 million tons per year. The system is most suitable for long-distance transportation of minerals (including coal and flyash) and wastes (including both mine wastes and municipal solid waste).

Jan 1, 2014

"The most common comminution testing methods and the associated analytical procedures provide average values and do not capture the variability in breakage behaviour of ore particles. Therefore, plant designs and process performance predictions use only average values; hence, the inherent variability that exists within an ore domain translates into variation in process performance. This paper discusses the drawbacks of using the average approach to impact comminution testing and plant design. It considers breakage intensity from a single-particle testing perspective. To clearly delineate breakage behaviour of each broken particle, an experimental technique using the JK Drop Weight Tester (JKDWT) has been developed by which actual comminution energy per particle and breakage intensities were measured directly. Four different ore types in ranges of -45+37.5mm and -22.4+19mm were tested at three energy levels of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 kWh/t and six energy levels of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 kWh/t, respectively. Sieved results of individual particles, notionally, t5, t10 and t50 showed the presence of large variability in their breakage behaviour, which was not captured by the standard JK impact breakage testing approach. In addition, the original JKMRC model is modified by introducing a third parameter, ‘Emint10’ which describes the minimum energy required to produce the minimum percent t10 for a given ore type and its significance is tested statistically. These results suggest that the analysis of breakage variability may lead to more robust plant designs. Perhaps, the most useful insight from this work is to extend single particle breakage model developed by JKMRC to a comminution percentile envelope which may provide a more detailed picture of ore breakage variability. INTRODUCTION Rock consists of mineral grains, pores, voids and cracks that may differ markedly in size/density which make rock a heterogeneous material by nature. The degree of heterogeneity in rock affects its breakage characteristics where these variations increase local differential strain and stress within a stressed rock (Scholz, 1968) and it depends on many factors such as rock genesis, alterations, etc. One important aspect of this heterogeneous feature is presence of a large amount of experimental scatter in rock breakage results when considered from a quantitative perspective (Bieniawski, 1967; Liu, Roquete, Kou, & Lindqvist, 2004)."

Jan 1, 2018

Ca-containing gangue minerals such as Fluorite, Calcite have same surface activity point--calcium ions and approximate floatability with scheelite, it is difficult to achieve good dressing index of rough concentrate of scheelite. Mono-mineral experiments and ore tests indicate that, according to mineral composition, gangue minerals can be inhibited selectively by adopting suitable regulators, then the separation of scheelite from gangue minerals can be realized effectively. Mechanism analysis was taken by zeta potentials measurements and FTIR tests. Good dressing indexes are also obtained in practical ore tests and industrial tests. Keywords: scheelite, fluorite, calcite, regulator, flotation separation

Sep 1, 2012

By J. Masinja

The mining industry is known to be a potential major contributor to the industrial development of any economy. Large-scale mining has been going on in Zambia for the last 100 years. The impact of mining in Zambia has been to create a development corridor along the line of rail to the Copperbelt Province, where hitherto, mining was concentrated, and then to develop a large consolidated high-density economic zone covering an area of about 72 km by 60km. This area is home to a number of very large integrated copper/cobalt mining complexes. The mining zone has expanded to the Northwestern Province in the last 10 years, where the largest copper mine in Africa now exists, having produced about 300 000 tonnes of copper in 2011. The total output of the Zambian mining industry is now about 820 000 tonnes per annum with projections of reaching 1.5 million by 2015, due to new Greenfield investments expected to come online by then. These new mining industry developments have come on the back of strong and sustained high base metal prices, in the last 10 years or so, due to demand mainly from China and India. This new lease of life has increased the contribution of the sector to the national treasury. The mining industry in Zambia has undergone a very important ownership restructuring with the sale of the previously Government owned parastatal, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) which dominated the sector, to allow for private sector participation. The privatization process lasted from about 1995 to about 2002. The recent growth of the mining sector has unfortunately not been matched by an adequate supply of skilled manpower for various reasons. These include: (i) A lack of strong in-house training strategies by the new mine owners (ii) Decrease in industry support to the training institutions (iii) The demise of and restructuring of ZCCM which has consequently limited the Government human resources planning tools for the mining sector (iv) The cyclic nature for the fortunes of the sector has lead to fluctuating interest of student recruitment into training institutions (v) Limitations, both staff and equipment, in the training institutions (vi) A re-structuring of the training institutions This paper examines the current status, and student output from tertiary training institutions for the mining sector in Zambia. This is then compared to the skilled labour demands of the sector. The various cause and effect issues are considered and a proposal on how this skills gap could be addressed sustainably is proposed. Keywords: skills gap, graduate training, quality of graduates

Sep 1, 2012

By Zhu Yangge, Hu Xiaoxing, Feng Qiming, Zhang Guofan, Zhang Xingrong

"During the flotation process of ilmenite and titanaugite with fatty acid as collector, unavoidable ions such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Al3+, Fe3+ and Fe2+ demonstrate considerable influence on the floatability of the minerals. In this study, flotation test, zeta potential test, and solution chemistry calculation were adopted to investigate the mechanism of how these metal ions affect the floatability of ilmenite and titanaugite in different pH conditions. The results show that in weak acidic solution, Ca2+ and Mg2+ mainly freely exist in the solution with little adsorption on mineral surface, and their reaction ability with oleate ions is weaker than active site on ilmenite surface (Fe), thus they show negligible effect on the flotation of ilmenite; Al3+ shows similar reaction ability with oleate ion compared to Fe3+, which lead to competitive reaction with collector, so the flotation of ilmenite is depressed. While Fe3+ can adsorb on surface of titanaugite in the form of Fe(OH)3, and it shows stronger reaction ability with oleate ion compared with active site on titanaugite surface (Ca and Mg), which proves an activation effect on titanaugite flotation. In alkaline solution, all these five kinds of ions can adsorb on titanaugite surface, and the floatability of titanaugite will be activation. Based on the above analysis, it can be deduced that in the flotation system using fatty acid as collector, the adsorption of metal ions on mineral surfaces and the stronger reaction ability with collector than active site on mineral surfaces, are the two prerequisites for metal ions show activation effect on mineral flotation.INTRODUCTIONIn flotation pulp, the existence of metal ions is often inevitable. There are two sources for these metal ions: the first part is generated in grinding and flotation process due to the oxidation, reduction, corrosion or dissolution of minerals or grinding medium; the second part is from the flotation water or the addition because of the technology need. The metal ions in the pulp have a considerable influence on mineral flotation. Earlier researches are focus on the activation effect of mineral floatation by metal ions to obtain a higher flotation efficiency, many effective activators were found, such as Cu2+ activated sphalerite, Pb2+ activation wolframite, and Ca2+ activation quartz flotation, these metal ions have become the commonly used activators in industrial production. And many studies attempted to explain the mechanism of how metal ions affect the floatability of minerals. James (James et al, 1972) suggests that metal hydroxide precipitation is the main component leads to activation effect, while the study of Fuerstenau (Fuerstenau, 1976) showed that the metal ion hydroxyl complexes played significant role. In recent years, the reuse of mineral processing wastewater has attracted more attention (Rao et al, 1989; Liu et al, 2013; Wang et al, 2014), as a main component in flotation wastewater, the influence of “unavoidable ions” on flotation process still need in-depth study."

Jan 1, 2018

By Longjiang Li, Mao Jiang, Zhihui Shen, Guizhou University, Yin Pan

This paper aims to study the influence and action mechanism of collector Y-89 on the flotation of auriferous pyrite. The measurement to identify adsorption quantity, IR and XPS spectrum analysis and flotation experiment made on the pure mineral were conducted. The research results show that when the dosage of MIBC is 20 mg/L, and pH of 8, the dosage of Y-89 over 60 mg/L, the pyrite recovery rate is greater than 80%.And when the dosage of Y-89is 60 mg/L, dosage of MIBC 20 mg/L, the pH in a wider range (pH=4~9), the recovery is greater than 75%. When the pH is above 10, the pyrite is depressed and its recovery rate is found to be dramatically dropping. Adsorption quantity measurement also shows that the strong alkaline conditions inhibit the adsorption of Y-89 on the surface of auriferous pyrite. IR measurement indicates that chemisorption of Y-89 occurs on the surface of auriferous pyrite. XPS spectrum analysis indicates that without adding Y-89, oxidation reaction occurs on the surface of pyrite. But when Y-89 is added, the chemical environment of Fe on the surface of pyrite has changed. Such findings indicate that with Y-89, chemisorption occurs on the surface of auriferous pyrite.

Jan 1, 2014

Nowadays, the more successful plants are those who have adopted effective and efficient strategies to optimise their plant operation. As the ?heart of the plant? could be viewed as the mil-ling/grinding area, one of the key steps in plant optimisation is, therefore, ensuring the mill is operating properly. In the past, when primary, secondary and tertiary crushers fed material directly to large ball mills, the energy efficiency of the concentrator was determined for the most part by the ball mill operation, whereas now the energy efficiency of a plant often rests largely on the semiau-togenous grinding (SAG) mill operation. As a result, mines have shifted their emphasis in optimization from ball mills to SAG mills. The grinding mill?s energy efficiency essentially depends on ore characteristics and the discharge rate of broken particles, which in turn depends on how efficiently the discharge pump (grate and pulp lifters) operates. The essential function of pulp lifter being to transport the broken material and slurry out of the mill, its design optimization therefore affects the discharge capacity (or mill throughput) of AG and SAG grinding mills. This paper will discuss how the optimised design of the pulp lifter/ discharger has helped to eliminate material transport issues such as flow-back and carry-over of slurry and pebbles to in-crease the energy efficiency of SAG mill using the actual operational data.

Jan 1, 2014

By B. Courtaud

Uranium plants are generally located quite far from conversion plants, resulting in high transport costs. One way of reducing such costs involves putting more uranium in each drum by increasing the final product?s bulk density, which can be achieved via mechanical compaction of the powder and/or improved precipitation. For most of its plants, AREVA has adopted the latter approach, involving a new precipitation process applicable to all kinds of yellowcake produced (via uranates, uranium peroxide, etc.) that achieves bulk density of 3 for soda uranate, for example, instead of the 1.5-2 density available via conventional processes. At present, this process is being undertaken on an industrial scale and will become the norm for precipitation processes at all AREVA U plants. In addition to producing dense yellowcake, the process also delivers a product with no fines, a spherical particle shape (which allows for high-quality powder flow) and superior post-precipitation filterability

Sep 1, 2012

By F. Y. Kang

Graphite with layers structure is easily to form graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) by means of intercalation reactions due to the weak cohesion force among carbon layers, van der Waal?s interactions. By controlling the oxidation-intercalation, high quality exfoliated graphite with low residual sulfur content and MClx-GICs (M=Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) powder for electromagnetic wave absorbing and shielding materials have been invented. The expansion volume of expandable graphite can be larger than 160 mL/g while the residual sulfur content is less than 800 ppm. The MClx-GICs powder can shield infrared ray and laser completely up to 15 min. We have also in-vented exfoliated graphite for heavy oil adsorption and mild-expansion exfoliated graphite for anode materials in lithium ion battery by controlling the intercalation/de-intercalation. The exfoliated graphite can adsorb heavy oil up to 80 g/g, it also exhibits better performance than commercial active carbon in sewage treatment. The mild-expansion exfoliated graphite as anode material shows high capacity of 370 mAh/g and good cycle performance.

Jan 1, 2014

The ore studied occurred in the Three Rivers area in China and was a silver-lead-zinc complex ore containing 400.52 g/t silver, 4.77 % lead and 3.47 % zinc. Silver, lead and zinc were the major valuable elements in the ore and copper, cadmium and tin were the associated elements to be comprehensively recovered, whereas arsenic was the harmful element. The element silver occurred mainly in freibergite with small proportion in dyscrasite and other silver minerals. The carrier minerals for silver were mainly galena and oxidized lead minerals and then sphalerite, arsenopyrite and pyrite. The ore contained numerous minerals with complex mosaic texture and the lead and zinc minerals enclosed each other multiply, which made the separation of the minerals in the ore very difficult. Experimental investigation on the beneficiation of the ore indicated that with flotation separation process it was very hard to obtain single lead concentrate or single zinc concentrate that would meet the requirement of market. In the meantime, during the separation process of lead and zinc, silver tended to be dispersed, resulting in a low recovery of silver. Therefore, a rational utilization technique for the ore should be a combined process of bulk flotation to reduce arsenic? sulphating roasting of silver-lead-zinc bulk concentrate-leaching with diluted sulphuric acid to separate silver, lead and zinc. With this process quality lead concentrate containing silver and high grade zinc product and silver product could be obtained. The recovery of silver, lead and zinc in flotation was 85.10%, 84.48% and 82.48%, respectively. The total recovery of silver, lead and zinc in chemical processing was 97.07%(sum of recovery of silver ingot and lead concentrate), 99.61% and 90.93%, respectively.

Jan 1, 2014

By Paul Gottlieb

This paper reviews the status of automated applied mineralogy today and describes the history and fundamental theoretical and practical bases underpinning the development of automated systems. Details are given of the technical challenges that were faced in creating the new technology and in applying it to a range of applications. In recent years, automated mineralogy has become established as an essential enabling technology for the reliable acquisition of statistically sound comprehensive mineralogical and metallurgical data. This has had a revolutionary effect on the industrial use of such data in the study of geology, mining and mineral processing. Previously, using manual methods, it was not feasible to attempt this work because the large data sets required could not be assembled in a realistic timescale. There was a reliance on individual expert mineralogists and this was not scalable. The speed, reliability, detail and repeatability of the modern automated measurements has now made this type of analysis routine. Automated Applied Mineralogy has come of age! More than 100 systems have been installed around the World. Automated mineralogical analysers such as QEMSCAN® were originally developed as diagnostic metallurgical tools to improve mineral processing plants using samples drawn from plant surveys, bench and pilot-scale tests. They were used mainly for the assessment and auditing of size fractions of mill products, such as concentrates and tails. Subsequently, they began to be used for concentrator design and optimisation where ore characterisation was used to help understand the relationship between the feed ore and its subsequent behaviour in the plant. They are now widely used to measure exploration cores and drill chips from drilling programs to predict eventual metallurgical performance. Ore samples can be classified into metallurgical, as well as geological types, by combining mineralogical features in the ores with metallurgical properties related to grade control, separation, comminution, flotation and leaching behaviour. Three-dimensional block models of ore deposits are now being created based on processing response in addition to geological and mining properties. The development of automated systems began in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There were many technical challenges. Mathematical theories of randomness, sampling theory, image analysis and stereology were developed to ensure sample representivity so that meaningful information could be obtained. Sample preparation, presentation and measurement methods were developed to ensure that the random sampling was preserved during the measurements. Methods of automatic measurement and mineral identification evolved from the use of electron microscopes, fitted with backscattered electron brightness and energy dispersive X-ray detectors. Operational procedures were required to ensure that these instruments could accommodate a large number of samples and operate unattended for long periods of time. The new technology was progressively applied to a range of commodities and applications and new analysis methods, such as liberation measurement, were needed for metallurgical interpretation of mineralogical data.

Jan 1, 2014

The addition of copper sulfate to mineral slurries in order to ?activate? sulfide mineral surfaces for enhanced collector molecule adsorption, and hence enhanced recovery via flotation, is a com-mon mineral processing practice. It has been established in a laboratory situation that the addition of CuSO4 in conjunction with xanthate collector increases the flotation rate of pentlandite as compared to the addition of collector alone. However, it remains unclear whether the addition of CuSO4has a similar effect within mineral processing circuits. We examine here the effect of pre-activation oxidation on the copper activation of pentlandite and monoclinic and hexagonal pyrrhotite. All activation experiments were carried out at pH 9 using a total solution content of copper ions equivalent to one monolayer (0.210 -4 moles, 110-4M). Copper loss from solution was extremely rapid in all cases with less than 10 % remaining after 10s. EDTA extraction and solution analysis clearly demonstrated that copper activation was via direct surface adsorption and not an ion exchange process, as is the case for sphalerite, and that most copper on the surfaces is in the form of Cu(I). ToF-SIMS analyses of the mineral surfaces subsequent to copper activation show increased surface oxidation on increased conditioning time prior to copper activation. However, there is a significant decrease in surface oxidation on comparison of samples that have otherwise been prepared in the same manner but where one has been exposed to copper solution rather than water. This suggests that copper activation stabilises the surface and reduces the propensity for oxidation. Regardless of the length of pre-activation oxidation time only Fe(III) (no Fe(II)-S) was observed by XPS analysis, indicating a highly oxidised surface layer dominated by Fe-O-OH species. The presence of Cu(II) on the mineral surface is indicative of the formation of Cu(II)-containing precipitates and indicates non-mineral specific activation resulting in increased recovery but lower grade. Mineral specific copper adsorption, as evidenced by the presence of Cu(I), is required to improve both grade and recovery. Prolonged oxidation prior to copper activation causes a reduction in the Cu(I) to Cu(II) ratio on the mineral surfaces as compared to either fresh surfaces or surfaces oxidised for 1 minute only. This strongly indicates that the copper activation process is less effective on highly oxidised surfaces.

Jan 1, 2014

By C. B. Yu

The ore comprise of chalcopyrite, valleriite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and so on. Serpentine and talc are chief gangues. Copper phase of the tail shows that mostly valleriite be losed in tail, 70% mineral of copper is valleriite in tail, so severity reduce the recovery of copper. The traditional flow-sheet in acidity mine pulp to flotat the valleriite, but copper-sulphur separated in high alkaline pulp, so the valleriite be losed else. Explores the characters of the valleriite?s surface, studys on the flow-sheet of flotat valleriite and copper-sulphur separated. In neutral mine pulp, adopt of cationic collector to flotat valleriite, adopt of hyposulphite to depressant pyrite in low alkaline pulp can advance the recovery of copper to 5.06%.

Jan 1, 2014

By A. Lane

Africa is ripe with opportunity for the mining industry. The continent has large, and relatively unexplored mineral deposits, and recent high economic growth rates have meaningfully improved the political, economic, and infrastructural environments. However, these opportunities are accompanied by significant risks, including resource nationalism, uncertain regulation, corruption, and continuing political instability (up to and including war). Forward-looking companies actively manage these risks by creating a sense of shared purpose with the countries and communities that own the resources, using tools such as stakeholder analysis, local narratives, scenario planning, and constituency engagement. They also measure socio-economic impact to insure the creation and demonstration of shared value.

Sep 1, 2012

This investigation addressed two products from Samarco?s desliming circuit, namely underflow of cleaning cyclones and underflow of desliming cyclones. The roughing cyclones receive the product of the grinding circuit. The underflow of the roughing cyclones feeds the cleaning cyclones and the overflow feeds the desliming cyclones. The underflows of cleaning and roughing cyclones are combined to constitute the feed of the flotation circuit. These fractions were characterized and a new process route was proposed. The size distributions of the two fractions are quite different. The desliming cyclones underflow presents higher amount of material passing 37 µm and of ultrafines as compared with the cleaning cyclones underflow. Laboratory scale flotation tests were performed in a mechanical machine aiming at comparing the performances of these products in the presence of the reagents employed in the concentrator. Pi-lot scale column flotation yielded enhanced iron recoveries for both products in comparison with those achieved in laboratory mechanical cells, without impairing the concentrate quality. The in-crease in recovery was more significant in the case of the cleaning cyclones underflow. These results suggest the use of columns in the flotation of this product aiming at increasing the overall iron recovery. Nevertheless the results also showed that the use of columns to float the cleaning cyclones underflow should also be taken into consideration. Despite the fact that this product requires a longer residence time in order that the required silica content in the concentrate is achieved, the indication is that higher levels of iron recoveries might be reached. The conclusion is that, due to the different behaviors of the two products, they should be processed in distinct circuits to maximize the iron recovery.

Jan 1, 2014

By L. M. Wang

Chengmenshan Copper Mine Concentrator adopts the new process of preferential?bulk stage floatation and utilize reground, largely increase the mineral processing index of the copper and the sulphide concentrates. In addition, the paper describes the remarkable economic benefit of the new process through the comparison of the new and the old processes.

Jan 1, 2014