Experimental plan for copper ore beneficiation

• Experimental plan for beneficiation of copper sulfide ore

For the beneficiation test of copper sulfide ore without oxidation (very low oxidation rate), basically only the flotation scheme can be considered.

In copper sulfide ore, in addition to copper sulfide minerals and gangue, some of them contain iron sulfide minerals (pyrite), pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, etc.), copper sulfide minerals are the same as gangue The separation is relatively easy, so the main contradiction in the mining flotation of copper sulfide ore is the separation of copper and sulfur.

When the iron sulfide mineral content in the ore is high, the priority flotation process should be adopted; on the contrary, the process of separation after copper-sulfur mixed flotation should be given priority, but the priority flotation process should not be rejected.

The basic prescription for copper-sulfur separation is to suppress iron sulfide minerals with lime, and a small amount of cyanide can be added if necessary. The resurrection of iron sulfide minerals can be sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide gas, sulfuric acid, etc., while a small amount of copper sulfate needs to be added.

When the ore contains magnetite, it can be recovered by magnetic separation.

When cobalt is contained in ore, cobalt is usually present in pyrite, and pyrite concentrate is cobalt concentrate.

When the ore contains a small amount of molybdenum, the copper-molybdenum mixed concentrate can be selected first and then separated.

Copper-nickel ore mostly adopts the mixed flotation process. The mixed concentrate can be smelted into nickel matte and then separated by flotation, or directly separated by flotation.

• Experimental plan for beneficiation of copper-zinc sulfide ore

Copper sulfide zinc ore is mainly processed by mining flotation.

Copper sulfide zinc ore usually contains iron sulfide minerals. The main task of flotation is to solve the separation of copper, zinc, and sulfur, especially the separation of lead and zinc.

Because copper-zinc minerals are often densely intergrowth, and sphalerite is easily activated (in the deposit or in the slurry) by copper ions, the separation of copper and zinc is usually more difficult than the separation of lead and zinc.

The flotation process needs to be tested and compared, but preliminary judgment can be made based on the composition of the ore material. When the sulfide content is high, priority should be given to the first flotation process or the part of the mixed flotation process in which sulfur is floated after the copper-zinc mixed flotation; on the contrary, the full flotation process or the zinc-sulfur mixed flotation after copper and zinc flotation can be considered . When the particle size of the symbiosis of copper minerals and zinc minerals is finer than that of the symbiosis of pyrite, the copper-zinc partial mixed flotation process can be used; on the contrary, it is better to float the copper first and then mix the zinc-sulfur flotation.

The basic prescription for the separation of copper and zinc is to use cyanide or sulfite (including NaSO3, Na2S2O3, NaHSO3, H2SO3, SO2 gas, etc.) to suppress zinc floating copper, and most of them are mixed with zinc sulfate. You can also consider the following three options:

1. Use sodium sulfide and zinc sulfate to suppress zinc floating copper;

2. Use red blood salt to suppress copper and float zinc in lime medium;

3. Heat the ore pulp (to 60℃) in the lime medium to inhibit copper floating and zinc.

The traditional prescription for zinc-sulfur separation is to use lime to suppress sulfur and float zinc. In areas where conditions permit, the method of slurry heating can also be tried instead of lime to suppress pyrite.

• Experimental plan for beneficiation of copper sulfide lead-zinc ore

The beneficiation of copper sulfide lead-zinc ore mainly uses mining flotation.

The following two process schemes should be given priority during the test:

1. Part of the mixed flotation process, that is, the flotation of copper and lead is mixed first, and then zinc and sulfur minerals are flotated sequentially or mixed.

2. Mixed flotation process, that is, all sulfides are floated out at once, and then separated.

The separation of copper and lead is the main problem in the flotation of copper-lead-zinc ore.

The solution can be to suppress lead and float copper, or to suppress copper and float lead. Which plan is better should be determined through specific experiments.

But the general principle is: when the content of lead in the ore is much higher than that of copper, lead floating copper should be suppressed; on the contrary, when the copper content is close to or equal to lead, copper floating lead should be suppressed.

Commonly used copper-lead separation methods are as follows:

(1) Dichromate method: using dichromate to suppress galena and flotation of copper minerals.

(2) Cyanide method: the flotation of lead minerals by suppressing copper minerals with cyanide.

(3) Ferricyanide method: When the secondary copper mineral content in the ore is high, the effects of the above two methods are not good enough. At this time, if the lead content in the ore is high, ferricyanide (yellow blood salt) can be used. And red blood salt) to inhibit the flotation of lead minerals from secondary copper minerals; if the lead content is much higher than copper, the following two schemes should be tested.

(4) Sulfurous acid method (sulfur dioxide method): That is, the mixed concentrate is treated with sulfur dioxide gas or sulfurous acid to inhibit lead minerals and activate copper minerals. In order to strengthen the inhibition, potassium dichromate or zinc disulfite can be added, or the slurry can be heated (heating flotation method), and finally the pH of the slurry must be adjusted to 5-7 with lime, and then copper Flotation of minerals.

(5) Sodium sulfite and ferric sulfate method: use sodium sulfite and ferric sulfate as mixed inhibitors, and acidify the pulp with sulfuric acid, stir under the condition of pH=6-7, inhibit galena and float copper minerals.

One of the main reasons why the separation of the copper-lead mixed concentrate is difficult is that the mixed concentrate contains excess chemicals (collector and foaming agent). Before the separation of the mixed concentrate, removing the excess reagent in the slurry and removing the collector film from the mineral surface can greatly improve the separation effect of the mixed concentrate.