Different types of copper ores often contain different associated useful components. In addition to copper ore recovery, this type of ore also needs to be targeted to comprehensive recovery of associated minerals, which has an important impact on the formulation of the process. Among the associated minerals of copper ores, lead zinc ore, molybdenum ore, nickel ore, etc. are more common. This paper will focus on these three types of associated minerals and briefly discuss the comprehensive recovery of associated minerals of copper ore.
Associated lead-zinc deposits mainly occur in skarn copper deposits, pyrite type copper deposits and sandstone type copper deposits, and the associated differences among the three types of deposits recovered are large. Lead sulfide and zinc sulfide are often associated with skarn type or sandstone type copper deposits. Flotation is the main beneficiation method. In the selection of process flow, copper lead mixed separation tailings zinc flotation process, copper lead zinc mixed flotation copper lead zinc separation process, and other floatable copper lead zinc sulfur asynchronous mixed separation copper lead zinc sulfur separation processes can be considered. The selection is based on the ore properties.
Volcanic massive sulfide copper deposits often contain associated zinc, and their zinc minerals are mainly sphalerite or marmatite. In addition, such deposits contain a large amount of pyrite or pyrrhotite in the middle, which is easy to be oxidized during mining, crushing and grinding. The oxidized surface will seriously affect the flotation speed of copper, zinc and sulfur minerals. In addition, some metal cations in the ore will activate zinc sulfur minerals, It affects the recovery of copper and zinc minerals. Therefore, the beneficiation process flow and reagent system of this kind of ore are relatively complex. The process flow includes pretreatment preferential flotation, copper zinc mixed flotation re separation, two-stage flotation, etc.
Molybdenum minerals often occur in porphyry copper deposits, mainly in the form of molybdenite, and copper minerals mainly exist in the form of chalcopyrite and bornite. The comprehensive recovery and utilization value of molybdenum is very high. When the grade of associated molybdenum reaches 0.01%, comprehensive recovery of molybdenite can be considered, which is one of the main sources of molybdenum minerals.
Since the floatability of molybdenite is similar to that of copper sulfide minerals, the sequential preferential flotation process is not generally adopted in the beneficiation process. The more common process flows are: copper molybdenum mixed flotation copper molybdenum separation process, stage flotation process of coarse concentrate regrinding and re concentration, partial preferential flotation process, fast preferential flotation process, etc. When the molybdenum grade in the raw ore is low, it is difficult to separate the molybdenum concentrate from the copper molybdenum mixed concentrate. At this time, partial preferential flotation process or rapid preferential flotation process is usually used.
Associated minerals mainly occur in copper nickel sulfide copper deposits, in which nickel ores mainly exist in the form of pentlandite and copper ores mainly exist in the form of chalcopyrite. According to different ore structures, embedded particle sizes and floatability differences, the beneficiation process flow for comprehensive recovery of copper nickel sulfide deposits mainly includes: stage grinding stage flotation, copper nickel mixed flotation copper nickel separation, copper preferential flotation copper nickel mixed flotation Etc. floatable - nickel enhanced recovery, etc.
In production practice, when the copper ore embedded in the deposit is fine and the flotation speed of nickel ore is different, the stage grinding stage flotation process can be used to obtain nickel concentrates of different grades. When the particle size of copper ore is relatively coarse and fine particles are embedded in nickel mineral, the process flow of copper preferential flotation copper nickel mixed flotation can be adopted.
The above is a comprehensive beneficiation and recovery process for three common copper ore associated minerals. It should be noted that in the formulation of the process flow, although the associated minerals are relatively important considerations, the ore structure, mineral imbedding relationship, useful mineral imbedding particle size, etc. also have an important impact, which requires comprehensive consideration. It is recommended that the beneficiation test be carried out first, and the appropriate process flow and more specific beneficiation process plan should be formulated according to the test results to avoid economic losses and resource waste.
