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Tailings
Eic Aminartey Agorhom1, William Skinner and Massimiliano Zanin
1
Ian Wark Research Institute
Ian Wark Research Institute, The ARC Special Research Centre for Particle and Interfaces, University of South
Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Adelaide, SA 5095, Australia
Email: Aminartey.Agorhom@mymail.unisa.edu.au
OK Tedi, Freeport Indonesia, etc.), in order to increase Cu and
Au grades, regrinding and depression strategies are used to
maximise pyrite rejection in the cleaner stage. Although these
depression strategies improve recovery and grade of copper,
gold recovery is very often affected due to its fine-inclusions
(~1-3 m) in pyrite and non-sulphide gangue minerals [1].
EXPERIMENTALS
Cu scavenger stage
Regrinding (for 35 min in IsaMill)
Pulp density (20 wt.% solids)
Pulp volume (2.0L)
Agitator speed (1000 rpm)
Total flotation time (8 min)
A. Materials
All tests were carried out in duplicates. At the end of each
test, concentrate and tail samples were filtered, dried at 60 0C
and assayed for Cu, Au, S and Fe. The flotation strategies
employed to optimise gold recovery whiles rejecting
significant pyrite in the copper tail are shown in Table 2.
A.I. Ore
Mineralogical characterisation of the ore revealed that
chalcopyrite and covellite were the major copper-bearing
minerals. Pyrite and silicates were identified as the main gold
host minerals in the ore. Gold occurred as either liberated or
locked in pyrite, sphalerite or biotite. Chemical analysis
showed that the ore contained 1.7 g/t Au, 1.0% Cu, 12.6% S
and 18.4% Fe.
60 min
A.II. Reagents
The collectors used were sodium iso-butyl xanthate
(C4H9OCSSNa, abbreviated SIBX) and N-butoxycarbonyl-n
butyl thionocarbamate (RHN-(C=S)-OR, abbreviated XD5002), supplied by Cytec Chemicals. The frother used was
methyl-iso-butyl carbinol (MIBC), also supplied by Cytec
Chemicals. All the reagents were freshly prepared for each
experiment as 1% w/w solutions. Lime was used as pH
modifier and compressed air as flotation gas (2 L/min).
Air (5 L/min)
25 min
Rougher
block
Cu rougher
concentrate
Feed
d80=38 m
Regrind
Circuit
B. Methods
B.I. Grinding, aeration and flotation
The schematic representation of the experimental
procedure is shown in Fig. 1. The ore (2 kg crushed to -2 mm)
was ground for 60 min in a closed stainless steel Galigher
mill, in 1000 ml of demineralised water, adding 2.5 g/t
XD5002 and 1.0 g of dry lime. This resulted in a flotation feed
with 80 wt.% of the particles passing through 38 m screen
(p80=38 m) and a mill discharge at pH 9.0. After grinding,
the pulp was transferred to a 4.5 L Denver flotation cell. Two
conditions, aeration and non-aeration were applied to the pulp
before reagent conditioning.
In the first set, the pulp was aerated for 25 min before
SIBX and XD5002 were added in six stages. The total
flotation time was 15 min and the pulp pH was kept constant
at 11.5. After Cu rougher flotation, the tails were reground
with batch stirred mill (IsaMill) to produce a flotation feed of
p80=15 m. Copper scavenger tests were conducted with 15
g/t SIBX, 10 g/t XD5002 and 7.5 g/t MIBC. Two minutes time
(2 min) was allowed for each conditioning. Four concentrates
were collected at 1, 2, 4 and 8 min cumulatively. The detailed
test conditions for the Cu rougher and scavenger stages are
shown in Table 1.
d80 = 15 m
No
aeration
Air (5 L/min)
25 min
Final Tails
Scavenger blocks
80
85
(b)
75
70
65
60
Error bar
55
50
5
10
11
12
13
Figure 2. Effect of aeration condition on (a) gold flotation rates and (b)
gold flotation behaviour in different test conditions (Cu rougher feed aerated
and non-aerated) using SIBX/XD5002 as collector, p80=38 m.
III.
(a)
Goldrecovery(%)
60
20
0
0
10
12
% (Cu Ro+Sc
stage)
Recovery
Grade
Recovery
Grade
Recovery
Grade
Au
Cu
(%)
(g/t)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
Test 1
25
2.2
43
0.6
10
24.5
73
96
36
Test 2
45
1.7
54
0.3
45
54.3
86
98
62
Test 3
33
2.3
56
0.8
16
32.4
82
97
49
100
40
Pyrite
Test #
A. Results
80
Copper
14
Py
Initial
Final
DO (ppm)
2.72
7.76
Eh (mV SHE)
269
342
Kla (min-1)
0.131
0.029
100
(a)
Gold recovery (%)
80
60
Aerated Cu rougher feed
Non-aerated Cu rougher feed
40
20
0
0
10
12
14
100
(b)
98
96
94
92
90
Cu rougher feed aerated
Cu rougher feed non-aerated
88
86
84
Error bar
82
80
4
10
12
14
100
80
60
(c)
Gold
40
Test #
Copper
Pyrite
Mass
Yield
Recovery
Grade
Recovery
Grade
Recovery
Grade
(%)
(g/t)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
Test 3
82
5.4
97
5.7
49
41.9
312
Test 3-1
81
5.4
97
5.9
28
38.4
292
Test 3-2
76
7.6
96
6.8
29
37.7
182
Test 1
73
96
5.2
36
36.9
242
Test 1-1
70
94
7.2
24
37.7
152
(%)
20
0
0
10
12
14
5.7
8.5
Survey/sample
Con.
EDTA
Ext.,
mg/l
Total
Total
weight,
metal,
Con.
EDTA
Ext.,
mg/l
Fe
Total
Total
weight,
metal,
Con.
EDTA
Ext.,
mg/l
Total
Total
weight,
metal,
Feed
29
0.25
19
1071.0
8.99
68.15
46.20
0.39
1.77
After grinding
38
0.29
22.87
1575.0
12.39
93.85
100.8
0.79
3.62
Aeration
48
0.36
27.87
1722.0
12.92
97.84
134.4
1.01
4.60
B. Discussion
The results in Fig. 3 indicate that aeration of the Cu rougher
feed decreased gold recovery due to decreased pyrite recovery.
The mineralogical analysis of the ore [1] showed that the
majority of the unliberated gold particles were associated with
pyrite. However, regrinding of the copper rougher tails (both
CONCLUSIONS
Regrinding and aeration improved Au recovery and grade
due to improve liberation and significant rejection of pyrite in
Cu rougher tails. The flotation strategies indicate that the best
approach to maximise Au recovery and grade was nonaeration of Cu rougher feed and aeration of the reground
product. The different flotation strategies do not have a
significant effect on Cu recovery. However, the use of
XD5002 alone together with aeration of the reground product
of the non-aerated Cu rougher feed gave the highest Au and
Cu grades with maximum pyrite rejection. The results
discussed here when combined with our previous studies [1, 7]
could provide a holistic approach of maximising Au flotation
in a typical porphyry copper-gold ore without detrimental
effect on Cu flotation.
FUTURE WORK
[12]
[14]
REFERENCES
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