Skarn, Porphyry, Vein, and Replacement Mineralization in the Toqui District, Southern Chile

Reprocessing of a Southern Chilean Zn Tailing by Flotation—A Case Study

“…The concentration of Au and Pb is also higher in the northwestern area than in other locations. The Zn concentration of the different ore bodies is almost unique, but in the northern district area sphalerites show lower Fe concentrations compared to the south [22]. This is explained by lower fluid temperatures during the mineralization.…”

“…Fe and S contents are as expected and typical for Pb-Zn skarn deposits. High Fe contents in sphalerites are also an indicator of high formation temperatures [22]. Mineral liberation analysis of the sphalerites of the heavy mineral sample indicated that the sphalerite occurs as an individual mineral aggregate.…”

“…The tailings investigated in this study originate from an operation processing a deposit of 25 km 2 consisting of various stratiform ore bodies [22]. A series of magmatic and hydrothermal events lead to the typical skarn mineralization of sphalerite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, as well as minor amounts of galena and chalcopyrite.…”

“…Due to a limited amount of material the focus of the flotation experiments is on the reagent regime and the recovery of sphalerite with a high selectivity against gangue minerals, also considering the increased amounts of iron contained in the sphalerite [22]. In literature, the high iron variety of sphalerite is referred to as marmatite and it is known for a higher reagent consumption and lower flotation kinetics [23,24].…”