Arsenide depression in flotation of multi-sulfide minerals
AssigneeInco Limited
InventorsZongfu Dai, Julie-Ann Arlene Garritsen, Peter Frederic Wells, Manqiu Xu
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Abstract
A mineral separation process includes wet-grinding the ore to liberation of minerals, oxidizing the slurry using air, hydrogen peroxide or other oxidants and floating the valuable minerals at a pH between about 9.0 and 10.0 with a xanthate as collector, and a combination of a polyamine and a sulfur containing species as depressants for arsenide minerals. This depressant suite effectively depresses the flotation of arsenide minerals with no effect on the flotation of the valuable minerals.
Claims26
A flotation process for selectively recovering valuable metals while rejecting arsenide minerals from an ore containing both said valuable metals and arsenide minerals comprising the steps of:
- wet-grinding the ore into a slurry,
- adjusting the pH of the slurry to a preset value by the addition of reagents,
- oxidizing the slurry by providing an oxidizing environment to the slurry,
- adding a reagent suite of a polyamine and a sulfur-containing species to the slurry for depressing flotation of arsenide minerals,
- readjusting the pH of the slurry to a the preset value by the addition of reagents,
- adding a collector and a frother at effective dosages to the slurry to float valuable minerals to be recovered and subjecting the slurry containing the collector and frother to flotation to float and selectively recover the valuable metal while rejecting the depressed arsenide minerals.
A flotation process for selectively recovering high grade nickel and copper metal concentrates while rejecting arsenide minerals from nickel-copper ore comprising the steps of:
- wet-grinding the nickel-copper ore into a slurry,
- adjusting the pH of the slurry to a preset value with the addition of reagents,
- oxidizing the slurry by providing an oxidizing environment to the slurry,
- adding a reagent suite of a polyamine and a sulfite to the slurry for depressing flotation of arsenide minerals,
- readjusting the pH of the slurry to the preset value with the addition of reagents and
- adding a collector and a frother at effective dosages to the slurry to float the nickel and copper metals to be recovered and subjecting the slurry containing the collector and frother to flotation to selectively recover high grade nickel and copper metal concentrates while rejecting the depressed arsenide minerals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.