IVS Joint Venture, Saint-Petersburg, Russia:
Yu. P. Nazarov, Director of Production Research Department, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Y_Nazarov@rivs.ru

The content of valuable elements of mining and processing waste accumulated in dumps, tailings ponds etc. makes it possible to assume this kind of raw material an unconditional resource backup. In view of the huge volumes and localized occurrence, mining and processing wastes are ranked as man-made deposits. However, the waste and the currently produced ore have the similar mineral composition and chemistry, which eliminates treatment of waste by adapted process solutions currently in operation at specific processing plants. Basic reasons are considerably different dissemination, size and morphology of particles, and oxidation rate as a result of action of various natural impacts. In terms of two plants processing allied kinds of feedstock, namely, copper-molybdenum ores, the authors discuss the developed methodological approaches to concentration of low-grade ore. The proposed alternatives of ore pretreatment and pulp preparation circuits and operations enhance efficiency of separation (flotation, in this particular case) in processing of different kinds of raw materials. The choice of a processing method is based on the preliminary mineralogical-andtechnological assessment of material from the viewpoint of alteration of process properties and as function of detected mineral associations. It is found possible in principle that treated low-grade ore yields products meeting either standards of bulk concentrate or depleted marketable copper concentrate.

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