Mass balance around floatation circuit, ascertaining copper deportment by size fraction
Date
2015-09-07
Authors
Mumbi, Mubanga R.
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Abstract
Frontier Mine s.p.r.l is a mine operating in Congo (D.R.C), which is, located 35km from Ndola, Zambia. The ore is mined from an open pit mine and has a head grade of percentage!.15 Copper. The plant treats sulphide ores and mixed ores and produces copper concentrate of up to 28% Cu grade and recoveries of up 95%. The concentrate is sold to smelter plants in Zambia and the rest of the world. The plant is new about 6 months old, but is achieving records that you normal see in old plant. The plant design is to mill 2400 t/day, the P80 of the feed going to the flotation circuit is 150u.m. My project title is 'Mass balance around the flotation circuit, ascertaining copper deportment by size fraction'.The main objective I was to account for metal distribution in the flotation circuit, so as to assess and control plant performance. The samples were collected from all the steams in the plant using a bucket. Pulp samples were taken every 30 minutes for 2 hours, this was done to have a representative sample. There were about 13 stream from which sample were taken.The recovery against size is plotted together with Copper Distribution. This is done so as help to compare the recovery for each size distribution. From the data it will be seen that the highest recoveries are between +45u.m and +75u.m. And as the particles get finer and coarse the recoveries drop. However, there is more copper -45p.m and less copper in +150u.m.
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Keywords
Copper mines and mining , Mines and mineral resources