Beneficiation Of Artvin-Cerattepe copper-zinc ore by flotation

Abstract

The Cerattepe (Artvin) mine contains volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits in northeastern Turkey. This is a kuroko type deposit located in Late Cretaceous volcanic, intrusive and sedimentary rocks, and has a structure with dense alteration stages. In this study, batch flotation tests were carried out to determine the flotation behavior of a new sample (mix ore), that was the combination of two different ores with different flotation behaviors. The mixed ore contains 2.18% Cu, 1.46% Zn, (Cu/Zn ratio 1.49) 38.35% Fe, and 41.6% S content. An efficient separation of copper minerals from zinc minerals using the conventional selective flotation method could not be achieved due to complex mineralogy and very low liberation degree. Therefore, sequential selective flotation resulted in poor Cu recovery. The effects of flotation parameters such as collector type, collector amount, particle size, and pH conditions, were investigated to obtain a bulk copper-zinc concentrate. The best results were obtained using thionocarbamate (Aero 3894) and dithiophosphine (Aerophine 3418A) collector reagents at d₈₀=40 µm particle size. Under optimal conditions (grain size, d₈₀=40 µm, pH=11, amount of collector reagent 60 g/t (Aero 3894), frother (MIBC)=50 g/t, solid ratio=32%, flotation time=8 min), a bulk copper-zinc concentrate containing 13% Cu and 9.5% Zn was obtained with a copper yield of 84.4% and a zinc yield of 88.9%. The concentrate mass pull was 13%. After rougher and two-stage scavenger flotation, a concentrate (rougher concentrate + scavenger products) was obtained with a mass pull of 22%. Copper and zinc recoveries of this concentrate were 91.8% and 92.5%, respectively.