Copper ore is a resource with high development value. Copper minerals are mainly copper sulfide ore. This type of mineral beneficiation usually separates copper and sulfur, often using a priority flotation process, and then selects copper tailings. recovery of sulfur. For copper-sulfur ores, the priority flotation process of copper and sulfur can be used in sequence. This article uses a case of comprehensive recovery of sulfur from a copper tailings to explain the process.

Process flow of sulfur recovery from copper tailings

The copper ore is a complex high-sulfur copper ore. The main metal minerals are chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and magnetite, followed by marcasite, chalcopyrite, graphite, and a small amount of molybdenite. Mine, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite. The gangue minerals are mainly garnet, quartz, talc, and serpentine, followed by angolite, biotite, calcite, muscovite, etc.

Due to the special ore properties of this copper mine, it is difficult to obtain ideal sulfur beneficiation indicators using a separate flotation process. This is mainly because the sulfur concentrate contains high orpirite content, which affects the grade of sulfur. Therefore, through ore beneficiation, After experimental analysis, a magnetic separation-flotation process was designed.

1. Copper tailings magnetic separation process
The main purpose of magnetic separation is to recover most of the pyrrhotite first, and then float the magnetic tailings after concentration to recover pyrite. The magnetic separation consists of one coarse and one fine magnetic separation. After rough separation, the qualified products are reground and then enter the magnetic separation to obtain higher pyrite concentrate.

2. Copper tailings flotation process
The tailings obtained after magnetic separation are concentrated using a hydrocyclone. At the same time, they also play a role in cleaning the mineral surface and desliming. Entering the flotation stage, the flotation process of two coarse-two sweeps-two fines is adopted to obtain sulfur concentrate. Among them, rough flotation uses activator and dixanthate for flotation to obtain sulfur concentrate and tailings. The concentrate is separated using water glass and dixanthate to obtain the final sulfur concentrate. The tailings of rough separation are swept twice. Selecting, mainly using chemicals to complete the cleaning and selection of dixanthate, to obtain high-sulfur iron coarse concentrate and tailings.

The above briefly introduces the process flow of copper tailings sulfur beneficiation in the form of a case. In actual beneficiation, due to different copper ore properties and different sulfur contents, the selected process plans are also different. If you want to obtain the ideal copper concentrate and sulfur concentrates, it is recommended to conduct mineral processing tests first, and through test analysis, a reasonable mineral processing process plan can be customized.