RIVS Research and Production, Saint-Petersburg, Russia:

K. M. Arustamyan, Head of laboratory
S. A. Romanenko, Leading Production Design Engineer, S_Romanenko@rivs.ru

GiproRIVS, Saint-Petersburg, Russia:
A. M. Arustamyan, Chief Project Engineer

The article addresses ore dressability research issues. It is emphasized that the traditional approach uses the analogy method, which is basically a search for flotation regimes using the a priori information and proven practices. At the same time, the unicity of any ore deposit always brings considerable uncertainty in the ore processing result even with the exhaustive a priori information available. For this reason, the basic tool to assess ore dressability is eventually an experiment. The flotation process performance, apart from material characteristics of ore, namely, mineral, chemical and grain-size compositions as well as texture and structure, is influenced by electrochemical properties of ore minerals. In the meanwhile, the current practice of ore dressability research neglects the electrochemical properties of flotation pulp. In terms of Zhezkazgan copper ore, Kazakhstan, the article shows that potentiogram recording assisted by various electrode systems enables quantitative evaluation of electrochemical parameters of flotation pulp and identification of negative impacts exerted on ore dressing process. Such negative impacts are generation of ferric hydroxide compounds, copper cations, sulfide anions and complexing of ions of sulfhydryl collector in the pulp. Assessment of the research findings using electrochemical methods shows optimal areas of analysis to reach the best production data of ore beneficiation.

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