Experimental Research On The Separation Of Specularite From A Specularite-copper Ore

Abstract:Studies on mineralogy and separation of copper from iron for a sepcularite-copper ore which comes from Xinjiang province were carried out in this paper. For low grade specularite concentrate, systematic experiments on the quality improving and impurities removing were also done, and a satisfactory result was obtained. By means of zeta potential measurement, VSM and EDLVO calculation, the interaction between mineral particles were investigated, and the conclusions are shown bellow:Based on the study of mineralogy, valuable minerals in ore are chalcopyrite and specularite. The run-of-mine ore of specularite-copper contains0.42%Cu and33.35%Fe. Gangue minerals are mainly quartz, feldspar and mica. The disseminated relationship among specularite and silicates are very complex, and the dissemination size of minerals is not uniform.The separation of cooper from specularite was finished by using the process of prior flotation on copper mineral and magnetic separation of specularite from flotation tailings. Finally, a qualified copper concentrate with the copper grade of20.43%and the copper recovery of91.45%, and a specularite concentrate with the iron grade of57.13%and the iron recovery of81.98%were produced.The iron grades of rougher concentrate in different size range are different, and the finer particle size has a higher iron grade. The-43μm sample can gain a concentrate with the iron grade of61.79%and the iron recovery of59.83%by only one cleaner process. The+43μm sample can gain the concentrate with the iron grade of57.25%and the iron recovery of18.26%by regrinding and two cleaner magnetic separation process. The lower monomer liberation degree of-43μm fraction is the main reason which impacts the improvement of magnetic concentrate’s grade. Regrinding can improve the monomer liberation degree of specularite, but the micro-fine specularite particles may reunion together under the action of magnetic force, it will make the silicates entering the magnetic concentrate and worse the magnetic separation index. The dispersion experiment shows that.dispersing agent can reduce the magnetic reunion of micro-fine and improve the efficiency of magnetic separation.The influence of dispersing agent shows the order of SHMP> sodium> silicate.Using SHMP as dispersant and the classification magnetic separation, a iron concentrate with the iron grade of62.14%%and the iron recovery of74.79%was produced, and the goal of improving quality and reducing the impurity was also finished.The result of EDLVO shows that:When the external magnetic field strength was796KA/m, the Specularite’s EDLVO energy will reduce with the distance of two particles increasing. When the distance between specularite particles is smaller than32.5nm, and the particles will repel each other, the EDLVO interaction energy is negative; when the distance is greater than32.5nm, the particles will attract each other. In the magnetic separation process, SHMP can reduce the zeta potential value of specularite and provide steric effect energy which will increase EDLVO energy and weak the magnetic agglomeration of specularite particles.There are a total of71graghs,37tables and101references.