Experimental Research On Separation Of Complex Low Grade Copper-Molybdenum Ore

Since the copper and molybdenum minerals are always closely associated,the separation of copper and molybdenum by flotation process has been a worldwide problem.The resources of rich molybdenum ore are dwindling,and the lean,the fine,and the miscellaneous ore has gradually become the main raw source of molybdenum extraction.For the traditional flotation separation of copper-molybdenum,large dosage of sodium sulfide inhibitors has been used,which exits the shortcomings of the pollution and the unrenewable backwater.This thesis takes refractory copper-molybdenum ore as the raw material,and carries out the experiments of flotation process.From the mineralogy analysis of the copper-molybdenum ore,it was found that main metal minerals in the ore are pyrite,chalcopyrite and molybdenite,chalcocite,covellite,tennantite,bornite,sphalerite and galena.The gangue minerals are very complicated.There were quartz,muscovite,feldspar,kaolin and illite in the ore.The main characteristics of the mixed concentrate of copper and molybdenum mineral was a high content of covellite and bornite,which brought about the difficulties during the flotation process.Sodium sulphide,potassium ferricyanide,potassium ferrocyanide and DDY2#were used as inhibitors in the flotation process.The various conditions were conducted,and different separation effects with the three inhibitors were compared.The optimum conditions for sodium sulphide were as followed,the pulp density was 25%,drug usage was 15 kg/t and the flotation pH was 10.5.The optimum conditions for potassium ferricyanide were as followed,the pulp density was 25%,drug usage was 3 kg/t,and the flotation pH was 7.5.The optimum conditions for potassium ferrocyanide were as followed,the pulp density was 25%,drug usage was 3 kg/t and the flotation pH was 7.5.The optimum conditions for DDY2#were as followed,the pulp density was 25%,drug usage was 1 kg/t and the flotation pH was 10.5.Compared with the traditional inhibitor sodium sulphide,potassium ferricyanide and potassium ferrocyanide,the new inhibitor DDY2#raised the molybdenum grade of the concentrate from 9.97%,10.14%and 9.93%respectively to 10.82%.And the recovery rate of molybdenum was enhanced from 6.37%,32.81%and 30.20%respectively to 61.42%.The separation indexes of the four inhibitors were 15.27,29.14,26.28 and 55.88 respectively.The researches showed that the separation of copper and molybdenum was improved by the new inhibitors,and the quality of molybdenum concentrate was enhanced markedly.This study showed that higher flotation temperature could significantly improve separation of copper and molybdenum.Flotation effect was enhanced as temperature rose.When the temperature was between 30? and 50?,molybdenum grade,molybdenum recovery and separation index of molybdenum concentrate showed significant increasement.The test results showed that the inert gas used in process of flotation could keep the separation of copper and molybdenum effective while reduce inhibitor dosage sharply.