Copper lead ore flotation separation

Copper-lead-sulfide ore is a relatively difficult ore to separate among copper-lead-zinc minerals. At present, the beneficiation method for copper-lead sulfide ore is mainly flotation method, and the common flotation separation processes are priority flotation, mixed flotation tailings-mixed concentrate priority flotation, equal flotation and potential control flotation separation craft.

1. Copper-lead ore priority flotation separation process

The copper and lead priority flotation separation process is based on the buoyancy of copper, lead and other sulfide minerals in the ore, and adopts a targeted chemical system to separate them from the pulp in turn by flotation to obtain separate concentrates and waste. tailings.

Generally, ore concentrators use lead suppression first to float copper, and then activate lead separation to obtain copper and lead concentrates. This process is mainly suitable for sorting coarse-grained disseminated and high-grade copper-lead ores.

Priority flotation copper concentrates are of high quality and easy to control on site. However, the structure of the process is relatively complicated, and there are many types of flotation reagents, and the consumption of reagents is large.

2. Copper-lead mixed flotation-mixed concentrate separation process

Copper and lead mixed flotation-mixed concentrate separation process is to first mix and flotation to get copper and lead mixed concentrate, and then carry out all or part of the mixed concentrate after dechemicalization. lead method. This process is mainly suitable for the treatment of copper-lead sulfide ores in which useful minerals are unevenly distributed, or densely symbiotic with each other, or one useful mineral is finely distributed in another useful mineral.

Mixed flotation-mixed concentrate separation can discard most of the gangue minerals, reducing the amount of treatment that enters the follow-up operation, greatly reducing energy consumption and reducing the amount of chemicals.

However, due to the excess reagent in the mixed concentrate, the surface of the ore particles is covered with a collector film, which often makes it difficult to selectively inhibit the separation of one mineral from floating out of the other in the next step, and it is not easy to obtain a relatively high concentration of minerals. A good sorting index makes its application subject to certain restrictions.

3. Flotation separation process for copper, lead, etc.

The flotation separation process of copper, lead, etc. is to select useful minerals with similar floatability into the mixed concentrate, and then carry out separation and flotation according to the difference in floatability of the ores. This process is suitable for processing complex polymetallic copper-lead sulfide ores containing difficult-to-float and easy-float parts in metallic minerals.

Equal flotation has the advantages of both preferential flotation and mixed flotation. The conditions of flotation separation are easy to control, which can avoid the activation of easy-floating zinc minerals and the strong inhibition of subsequent separation. At the same time, it can also avoid the need for Inhibition of refractory zinc minerals and subsequent strong activation during flotation.

However, the flotation time is longer, the process is complicated, and the grinding and flotation equipment is also more than the mixed flotation process, which is less used in the actual production of copper and lead separation.

4. Potential control flotation separation process of copper and lead

The essence of the copper-lead potential regulation flotation separation process is to control, adjust and match the pH-potential system in the pulp to enhance the hydrophobicity of the surface of copper sulfide minerals and the hydrophilicity of the surface of lead sulfide minerals, so as to separate copper and lead by flotation. This flotation process is mainly suitable for processing low-grade copper-lead sulfide ores.

Potential-regulated flotation uses less reagents, simple formula, less environmental pollution and high selectivity. However, the field operation of potential-controlled flotation is difficult, the applicability is not strong, and there are few cases of successful application in mines, so further research and improvement is needed.

The above are several flotation processes for copper-lead sulfide ore, among which copper-lead preferential flotation and copper-lead mixed flotation-mixed concentrate separation process are more commonly used.