Outotec (St. Petersburg):

Mashevsky G. N., Chief Process Adviser, Doctor of Engineering, gennady.mashevsky@outotec.com

Petrov A. V., Head of Department, alexsandr.petrov@outotec.com

Romanenko S. A., Leading Process Engineer, Sergey.Romanenko@outotec.com

The article considers the problem of pyrrhotine copperpyrite ores flotation concentration, by way of example of the «Named after the 50th October anniversary» deposit. It is shown, that conventionally applied flow sheet of selective flotation in lime medium and using xanthate as collector do not permit to achieve high metallurgical results. The results of the «Green Mountain» Plant operation in 2010 are presented. The reasons for low copper recovery are revealed by applying ionometric charting of production process. It is shown, that hydroxo complex iron compounds of type [Fe(OH)Х₂]^–  are formed in pulp in presence of pyrrhotine. Pilot studies were performed under the plant laboratory conditions with continuous ionometric control in each experiment. Owing to considerable variation of studied parameters, neural network modeling method was applied in the experiments in order to determine optimal regime. It is shown, that the best processing regime for pulp preparation is preliminary pulp aeration in Na₂SO₃ medium in presence of aerofloat. Using this regime in experiments on return water provided for essential copper recovery increase, if compared with base regime.

1. Mashevskiy G. N., Petrov A. V., Romanenko S. V., Sufyanov F. S. Obogashchenie Rud, 2012, No. 4, pp. 36–42.

2. Konyev V. A. Flotatsiya sulfidov (Flotation of sulfides). Moscow, Nedra, 1985, 262 p.