New Insights Into Recovery of Copper and Gold from Old Flotation Tailings from Bor, Serbia

Mining and processing tailings often contain significant amounts of valuable metals, that can represent valuable sources of secondary raw materials. Especially this is case in early-stage operations, in which the head grades were higher, and the tailings were higher grade. These tailings can also present a substantial risk to the environment. Serbia has copper deposits which have been exploited since ancient times, and these operations have generated large amounts of mineral processing tailings. The main objective of this study is to show how valuables can be recovered from chemically and mineralogically challenging tailings. After detailed chemical and mineralogical characterization, the laboratory scale flotation tests focused on evaluating the effect of particle size, different types of collectors, pH, and pulp potential. Based on the test work, copper and gold can be recovered effectively into pyrite concentrate

Study on Potential-Controlled Flotation Test of a Copper-Lead-Zinc Polymetallic Sulphide Ore

The study on potential-controlled flotation test of differential flotation process was carried out in the light of the change of a certain ore properties. The test used self-developed EMZ-91, as well as conventional collectors of ethyl thio carbamate and butyl xanthate for the flotation of copper, lead and zinc ores respectively, in which the copper sulfate was used as the activator of zinc mineral. The new differential flotation process, which is using lime to regulate pulp potential, produced the copper concentrate grading 27.18% copper at 73.37% recovery, the lead concentrate grading 66.00% lead at 63.00% recovery, and the zinc concentrate grading 55.27% zinc at 87.69% recovery.

Study on Recovery of Lead-Zinc Tailing Ore by Electrochemical Flotation

The tailing in a large lead-zinc-iron-sulfur multi-metallic mine has rich reservation in variety of metallic minerals. It has been difficult to recover because of all kinds of reasons. The challenges faced by lead-zinc ore beneficiation are, low grade and recovery of lead and zinc concentrate for fine disseminated grain size, high oxidation rate and close intergrowth. This paper presents a Pulp Potential Control Flotation by stages technique to improve the flotation performance of the lead-zinc ores. In the electrochemical potential controlling flotation processing, using DDTC as collector, the separation potential range of galena and sphalerite with pyrrhotite can be achieved. Flotation circuit of lead-zinc-silver tailing ore was achieved.

Influence of the Addition of Depressants during Grinding on Lead-Zinc Separation

The flotation performance of a complex lead and zinc ore were investigated by changing the grinding environments. Four groups of testing were conducted with different depressants or their combinations. Flotation results, size-by-size analysis, pulp potential (Eh) and dissolved oxygen (D0) were studied. It was found that the addition of depressants during grinding was beneficial to increasing the separation efficiency.

Research on Potential Control Flotation of Molybdenite

In this paper, potential control flotation of molybdenite has been investigated which focus on the effect of pulp potential on flotation performance. Optimum flotation conditions of molybdenite are determined through tests: optimum pulp potential is 190mv~300mv, dosage of sodium sulfide is 6kg/t.The potential control flotation does not use sodium silicate which solved the problem of tailing settlement difficulties. The mechanism of potential control flotation shows that S0 is the main factor that achieves potential control flotation of molybdenite.