Abstract:A copper-sulfur ore from Tongling of Anhui Province contains 0.34 % copper, mainly occurring in the form of sulfides (93 %), and 31.26 % sulfur, which can defined as sulfide ore with grades of high sulfur and low copper. The copper recovery in the flotation practice has been maintained at 82 % -84 % in the past years, which is significantly lower than the theoretical recovery of copper sulfides in the raw ore. In order to improve the copper recovery of the ore, in this work, batch-scale flotation tests were performed for investigating the effects of grinding fineness and multiple esters combination collector on the copper flotation recovery. Under the optimized conditions of 75 % grinding fineness (weight of -74 μm fraction) and using multiple esters combination collector, a copper concentrate analysising 16.43 % Cu with 94.07 % Cu recovery was obtained, which were respectively increased by 1 and 9 percentage than that of industrial production. Through the in-depth analysis of the size fraction distributions of products from the tests and industrial production, we found that the insufficient grinding fineness and the uneven particle size distribution in the grinding products are the key reasons for the copper loss in the tailings. In addition, the tests results indicated that the use of multiple esters combination collector can effectively enhance the recovery of ultra-fine copper minerals. These would provide a scientific guidance and basis for improving the copper recovery index in industrial production.

Abstract: