Treatment of coarse material in flotation

The treatment of coarse particles was approached from two perspectives. A techno-economic study had to reveal the potential of a Derrick 5-deck Stack Sizer\textregistered in a flotation circuit. This fine wet screening technology has a high capital expenditure. This is a disadvantage since investors try to suppress the capital costs in an early stage of the project. However, the increased separation efficiency reduces circulating loads and thus operating costs. Cashflows for a time period longer than a year showed potential. The second perspective was a literature review followed by practical work. It had to reveal and prove the behaviour of coarse particles in laboratory batch flotation tests. Flotation experiments with fixed parameters and operating at low froth bed thickness were conducted. Different particle size distributions of a porphyry copper ore were tested. Different behaviour for different particle size fractions was observed. Mineral liberation data indicated the availability of liberated, binary and ternary chalcopyrite in the concentrate. The liberation of chalcopyrite indicates the optimum aperture size for fine wet screens. Low froth bed thickness increased the recovery of fines caused by entrainment.Resource EngineeringGeoscience & EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience