Sulfide copper mineral, typically Chalcopyrite (CuFeS), is one of the most common minerals for producing metallic copper via the pyrometallurgical process. Generally, flotation tailings are produced as a byproduct of flotation and still consist of un‒recovered copper. In addition, it is expected that more tailings will be produced in the coming years due to the increased exploration of low‒grade copper ores. Therefore, this research aims to develop a copper recovery process from flotation tailings using high‒pressure leaching (HPL) followed by solvent extraction. Over 94.4% copper was dissolved from the sample (CuFeS as main copper mineral) by HPL in a HO media in the presence of pyrite, whereas the iron was co‒dissolved with copper according to an equation given as C = 38.40 × C. To avoid co‒dissolved iron giving a negative effect on the subsequent process of electrowinning, solvent extraction was conducted on the pregnant leach solution for improving copper concentration. The result showed that 91.3% copper was recovered in a stripped solution and 98.6% iron was removed under the optimal extraction conditions. As a result, 86.2% of copper was recovered from the concentrate of flotation tailings by a proposed HPL‒solvent extraction process.
A process for concentration of Cu from a Cu mine tailing by flotation has been investigated in this study. The flotation studies were carried out under varying conditions of pH (3.5~12), flotation time (0~20 minutes) and sulfurizing reagent (0, 1000 g/t) using two different pH regulators (NaOH, Ca(OH) 2 ). The results showed that the grade of Cu in froth concentrate was increased from 0.24 mass% to 0.81 mass% with the enrichment ratio of 4, whereas the Cu recovery reached 60% under the conditions (pH 10, sulfurizing reagent: 1000 g/t, collector of PAX: 100 g/t, frother of MIBC: 200 g/t and flotation time: 5 minutes). At the condition, the grade of Al and Fe were reached to 0.6 mass% and 6.6 mass% from 3.45 mass% and 3.51 mass%, respectively.
In this paper, we present the results for recovery of copper from silicate-containing low-grade copper ore using flotation followed by atmospheric and high-pressure oxidative leaching. The effects of various flotation parameters, such as flotation time, PAX dosage, slurry pH and air injection rate on beneficiation of copper from the low-grade copper ore were studied. The recovery of copper reached 93.1% and the grade of copper improved to 18.2 mass% from 0.4 mass% under collector-less optimum flotation conditions. The enrichment ratio of copper in the concentrate was 45. The copper concentrate obtained from flotation of the low-grade copper ore was treated by atmospheric leaching and high-pressure oxidative leaching processes. A maximum recovery (>93.0%) of copper was obtained by high-pressure oxidative leaching in the water, whereas the copper recovery was lower than 12% in the sulfuric acid solution under atmospheric leaching conditions. The copper concentration in a pregnant leach solution enriched up to 15.0 g/L under the optimized leaching conditions. The effect of impurity such as iron in the sample on the froth flotation and both leaching processes is also considered. A process flow for the recovery of copper from silicate-containing low-grade copper ores is proposed as a result of these studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.