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Flotation Test Evaluation Methodology (5 replies)
Hello HugoMet,
best keep your evaluation and presentation from data analysis classic. It is never good if you need to 'explain' how to read your work. Keep it textbook. Try to not distract from the fundamentals.
You present your tests with only 1 concentrate. You best produce 3 or 4 rougher concentrates to produce a comparative grade/recovery curve.
Now, looking at your numbers DR800 is your worst test while your Standard-Baseline is the best (of the bad).
About your test; the mass pull is horrible, the concentrate grade (or lack of) is also bad. A 1% copper into 19% Fe will not be easy. Try to get a conc of 5-10% Cu at least. Your mass pull ... lower... %15?
What P80 grind are you working at?
What frother are you using?
Your biggest challenge is to stay selective against Fe (S).
No need to get all exotic with fancy collectors. Use a SIPX and cut the dosage & cur the dosage & cut the dosage & ...
I use 4 basic graphs to help me evaluate performance.
12 tests compared:
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In order to evaluate the optimum operating conditions to depress pyrite you should follow a sequential process. It is important to perform flotation kinetics tests. Based on your results, there are two potential problems to treat your ore, the iron content and the level of insoluble material. Your testing program should comprise the following tests:
- Effect of particle size (e.g. 200, 150, 100, 90, 75 um) on copper recovery and displacement of iron and insoluble material
- Once you determined the optimum particle size (e.g. K80 150 microns), it is important to evaluate different collectors
- The third evaluation is oriented to select the frother. Try to evaluate four or five frothers
- The next stage is to determine the optimum pH to perform the rougher flotation stage
- Once you selected the previous operating parameters, you should evaluate different types of depressants to minimize the presence of pyrite in the copper rougher concentrate
- Finally, it is important to evaluate reagents to minimize the displacement of insoluble material. A mineralogical study can provide useful information.
- Don't forget to determine the presence of oxide copper minerals. The total copper content is high, but the recovery is not high.
Consider kinetics tests to make your evaluation. It is important to plot grade-recovery curves to study the metallurgical performance stage by stage. The flotation tests should be performed by the same person, otherwise, some unexpected results could appear in your analysis.
The group has provided you with very good points to capitalize on.
So you want to eliminate the pyrite in presence of copper.
What is the mineral composition of the ore?
What is the mineral that contains the copper?
In case the copper is in chalcopyrite and pyrite is not from transition ores, one of the most important factors is the pH. Flotation selectivity can be improved by the pH level.
In an acid pH (low pH), the recovery of both chalcopyrite and pyrite is significantly high and the selectivity between them is poor. In an alkaline pH (high pH), the recovery of chalcopyrite stays high but pyrite is well depressed. So higher pH improves selectivity between chalcopyrite and pyrite. There is a limit in increasing the pH over which the recovery of chalcopyrite drops drastically.
As said by David, keep your tests analysis as in textbook.
An example set of conditions:
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When we perform Cu flotation tests, we analyze several responses and have drawbacks. I have devised a form, for example in the attached figure it is a test to depress pyrite, a single value is obtained with 3 elements to be analyzed in this case "The recovery of Cu, Cu law and recovery of Fe", in this case For each reagent used calculate its area, the area with the highest value is the best result. It should be noted that the recovery of Fe for the calculation of the area is subtracted 100% because it is not convenient for us to maximize this recovery.
I would like your recommendations and observations.