Gipronickel Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia):

Karnaukhov S. N., Head of Sector, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, karn49@mail.ru
Plyasovitsa S. S., Senior Researcher, Plyasovitsass@nornik.ru
Ivanova N. V., Engineer of the 1st Category, IvanovaNatV@nornik.ru

The article outlines the specific process features observed in the processing of copper- and iron-bearing ores. A brief description of the developed concentration technology for these ores is provided. This technology is based on the separation of copper concentrate by flotation and of magnetite concentrate by magnetic separation. Respective associated processes result in gold recovery by gravity. The degree of oxidation of copper minerals is one of the most critical factors for obtaining high process indicators in concentration. The article provides a detailed description of the concentration technology for oxidized ores. The respective industrial research carried out at LLC Gipronickel Institute established certain dependencies between copper recovery into copper concentrate and the degree of oxidation of copper in the ore. It is noted that with an increase in the degree of oxidation of copper, its recovery into finished copper concentrate is reduced. The recovery of copper into the finished concentrate for ore with the copper oxidation degree of up to 10 % rel. variates within the range of 83 to 90 %; at an oxidation degree of 10–20 % rel., this value is 60 to 83 %; with the oxidation degree of 22 %, the copper recovery does not exceed 57 %. It should also be noted that with the increase in the degree of copper oxidation in the ore, large amounts of silts and probably easily floatable silicates and clay minerals were observed in individual samples, which would hinder the flotation process and in general prevent the achievement of acceptable process parameters. It has been shown that in order to obtain high concentration process parameters, the degree of copper oxidation in the ore charge must not exceed 6 % rel.

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