Yunnan Zhenyuan Mixed Copper Beneficiation Test

Copper is a kind of base metals, has a closely relation to human life. It is widely used in electrical, light industry, machinery manufacturing, construction industry, defense industry and other fields. In China, the consumption of copper ranks the second place of non-ferrous metals, only behind that of Aluminum. However, with the fast development of mining, the resources of high-grade copper ore becomes exhausted. At the same time, the world copper production has increased steadily in recent year, and the world demand for copper is growing day by day. Therefore, the study of beneficiation of mixed copper and copper oxide ore becomes more and more important.A mixed copper ore, in Yunnan province, assay 1.10% Cu and 29.5g/t Ag, respectively. And silver is basically in the form of elementary substance. Mineralogy studies show that, the oxidation rate of copper ore is 44.82% and the combined rate of copper is 12.18%. Oxide copper minerals are mainly malachite, the second is chrysocolla, followed by a small amount of azurite; and sulfide copper minerals are mainly bornite, followed by chalcocite and covellite, and a small amount of chalcopyrite. The embedded size of copper ore ranges widely. The main gangue mineral is quartz, followed by chlorite.After mineralogy studies, the flotation tests have carried out. It is found in the preliminary experiments that selective flotation is better than bulk flotation. So the selective flotation process is listed as key points to study, in which sulfide copper minerals with better floatability are recovered firstly, and then sodium sulfide to activate the copper oxide is used. The optimum experimental conditions are determined by single-factor tests of sulfide copper rougher.In the flotation tests of copper oxidation, the effect of sodium sulfide to activate the copper oxide is better than the direct flotation. The flotation tests of oxidation copper focus on choosing selective collector. The results of collector tests show that the performances of combined reagents are better than that of single collector. Optimum combination of collector and its dosage are 75g/t butyl xanthate and 75g/t sodium hydroxamic acid. After two-roughing, one-scavenging and one-cleaning operations, a copper concentrate was obtained, assaying 22.45% Cu with a Copper recovery of 82.40%, assaying 614.9 g/t Ag with a Silver recovery of 83.38%. The tests results are satisfactory. And the reagents in flotation are easy to get; the flow sheet of flotation is simple and easy for operation. This paper can provide practical guidance and reference for plant operation.