Froth Flotation (Sulphide & Oxide)

Froth Flotation (Sulphide & Oxide)

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Routine Laboratory Test Work for Cu Plant (2 replies)

S
Sloan
5 years ago
Sloan 5 years ago

What kind of "routine" test work would you recommend doing in the lab to be able monitor the plant performance to see whether it is running efficiently and pin point the areas that require improvement?  Please consider a plant that is struggling with both Recovery and Concentrate grade.  We are planning to do daily final tail hot float tests (no additional reagent), daily float feed sizing, monthly composite mineralogical analysis of critical streams. What else can be added to the list?

T
Todd H
5 years ago
Todd H 5 years ago
Like

I am assuming that this is a copper sulfide flotation plant.

 

Routine Test Work And Analysis

  • mill feed
    • fractional assays - Cu, S=, Fe
  • cyclone overflow
    • screen analysis, fractional assays Cu, S=, Fe
    • batch float test - rougher conc, cleaner con analysis
    • regrind 5 min - refloat and compare
  • float tails
    • Scavenger float test 
    • fractional screen assays Cu, S=, Fe
  • Intermediate streams -
    • Cleaner tail - fractional assays
    • Cleaner feed - float test with and without regrind
  • Finals conc
    • Mineralogy - what is the source of the impurities - liberation or rejection issues

This sounds like you have either a liberation issue or a mineralogical issue (different copper minerals, gaugue inclusion).  I would focus on grind size and reagents to see if you can improve recovery and grade.  I would have a liberation analysis done to define what grind size you need theoretically.

Regards

 

 

Todd Harvey - Global Resource Engineering http://www.global-resource-eng.com

S
Sloan
5 years ago
Sloan 5 years ago
Like

Thanks for the response . Yes it is a copper sulfide flotation plant.  

In our operation the rougher con reports to cleaning circuit (columns) after passing through regrind. Cleaner tails reports to cleaner scavenger circuit and the scav concentrate is sent back to cleaner circuit. Scav tail combines with rougher tail and becomes final tail.

How would we use the information from fractional size analysis of the mill feed? Would you recommend to add any reagent in batch flotation tests or float them as they are?

I understand the cleaner feed float test with and without regrind but why should we do float test on rougher and cleaner con? 

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