Preliminary Study On Recovery Copper From Copper Slag

The output of copper slag is 4-5 million tons each year. Accumulation total is more than 50 million tons so far, and it contains more than 0.5 million tons of copper and a considerable number of precious and rare metals. A long-term storage of slag takes up a lot of arable land and seriously polluted the environment. Recovery of valuable constituents from copper slag is an important task for mineral processing workers.This paper studies the flotation process of copper slag. The chilling and annealing copper slag of Hubei Huangshi Mining Company is investigated object. The main metal minerals are copper sulfide and magnetite. The main gangue is ferrosilicate. The chilling copper slag is finely-dissemination particles of copper. By contrast, the annealing copper slag is coarse-dissemination particles, so it's easier to recover. This study bases on mineral composition and mineral dissemination characteristics of copper slag and combines the property of copper slag, then the experiment of grinding fineness, collectors and foamer dosage and flowsheet are done in laboratory in order to determine the flotation reagent system and final flowsheet.Finally better separation's index is attained. The grade of chilling copper slag is around 0.83%, the mineral dissemination of -0.035 mm of copper is 87.26%. The grade of concentrate and tailings is 12.51% and 0.44%, and the copper recovery is 45.89%. The grade of annealing copper slag is around 3.60%. The grade of concentrate and is tailings 22.53% and 0.34%, and the copper recovery is 91.96%. The cooling method of copper slag affects the crystal growth rate and crystal morphology. Slow cooling is beneficial to recovery valuable constituents from copper slag.This study provides some theoretical foundations of recycling copper of copper slag.