Maximise the value of a sulphide ore resource through sequential waste rejection

Abstract

This invention relates to an integrated process for recovering value metals from sulphide ore which includes the steps of bulk sorting 16 and screening 24/28 crushed ore. The sorted/screened coarse ore stream is ground and classified 20 to provide a coarse fraction 34 suitable for coarse flotation and a first fine fraction 38 suitable for flotation. The coarse fraction suitable for coarse flotation is subjected to coarse flotation 36 thereby to obtain a gangue 42 and an intermediate concentrate 46. The intermediate concentrate is subjected to grinding 48 to provide a second fine fraction suitable for conventional flotation. The first fine fraction and the second fine fraction are subjected to conventional flotation 40 to provide a concentrate and tailings. This process that capitalizes on the natural heterogeneity of sulphide orebodies, and utilizes bulk sorting, screening and coarse flotation beneficiation technologies in a novel multistage configuration to reject the maximum quantity of waste gangue prior to fine comminution.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.