OJSC «Uralmekhanobr», Yekaterinburg, Russia:

S. V. Mamonov, Head of Department, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Mamonov_SV@umbr.ru
S. V. Volkova, Senior Researcher
T. P. Dresvyankina, Leading Researcher

The material constitution of complex serpentine copper ore from the Central section of the Bozymchak deposit has been studied. It has been established that: 50% of copper in ore is associated with oxidized minerals (25% with malachite, azurite and cuprite, and 25% with chrysocolla); ore contains 71% serpentinite; copper ore hematite was diagnosed in the ore, the copper content in the internal volume of which reaches 2%, in its marginal part – 25%; the ore contains gravitational gold of size 76 × 47 × 43 microns and a gold content of 68–80%. The results of the gravity ore concentration are presented. It is shown that by centrifugal concentration and subsequent cleaning of its heavy fraction on the concentration table, it is possible to obtain a concentrate with gold content of 50.5 g/t with recovery of 23.57%. It has been established that the hydrometallurgical method of ore beneficiation is not effective due to the high acid intensity of the host rocks (serpentinite). The effect of fine ore grinding in ball mills and bead mills of ultrafine grinding on the degree of chalcopyrite disclosure and technological indicators of beneficiation was investigated. It is established that the full disclosure of chalcopyrite occurs when ore is crushed to 90% of the class -0.02 mm. It is shown that fine grinding allows increasing extraction of copper in copper concentrate by 19% while at the simultaneous rise in copper content by 3%. It was noted that in order to obtain high beneficiation rates, the flotation process should be conducted with a solid content in the pulp of not more than 20%, sodium hydrosulfide with a flow rate of 800 g / t and a mixture of sodium hexametaphosphate and carboxyl methylcellulose with a total flow rate of 1200 g / t should be supplied to the ore grinding cycle. The flotation process must be carried out after pre-aeration of the pulp with copper sulphate at a flow rate of 250 g / t. The integrated ore dressing technology has been developed, which allows production of the gravity concentrate with gold content of 50.5 g / t with recovery of 23.57 and the copper concentrate with copper content of 19.06% with recovery of 66.70%. The total gold recovery in commercial products amounts to 78.32%.

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