1
24-027
Processing Marcasite Copper Ore with Iron Depressant,
Hybrid Reagents, Advanced Data Analytics, Visiofroth™ and
Breakthrough Expert Control of Entire Flotation Plant—
Fundamentally Transforming Doe Run Buick Mill to Create
Value and Expand Ore Resources
Weishi Mang
The Doe Run Company, Boss, MO
Adam Steimel
The Doe Run Company, Centerville, MO
Andrea Deml
The Doe Run Company, Boss, MO
Randy Hanning
The Doe Run Company, Viburnum, MO
Brian Mangogna
The Doe Run Company, Viburnum, MO
ABSTRACT
The Doe Run Company (Doe Run), a global supplier of
lead, copper and zinc concentrates, and lead metal alloys,
has deployed an innovative hybrid reagent system which
includes an iron depressant to enable processing of high
iron marcasite ores at the company’s Buick Mill. The
deployment of this technology has increased the ability
to produce saleable concentrates from high iron marcasite
ore, thereby improving ore reserves. This system utilizes
VisioFroth ™ as a baseline and builds on its platform with
a breakthrough expert control system to operate the entire
flotation plant using VisioFroth ™ as a soft sensor like x-ray
fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and its bubble character-
istics as process parameters. This new deployment of tech-
nology utilizing Distributed Control System (DCS) as its
engine, Pi software as its data hub and a second modern
floatation reagent system has been finetuned with advanced
data analytics and Machine Learning (ML) for limitless
optimization of the mill’s operation. It has been deployed
at existing mill infrastructure, fundamentally transforming
Buick Mill.
INTRODUCTION
The Doe Run Company (Doe Run) is a global supplier of
lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) concentrates, along
with Pb metal alloys. Doe Run’s Buick Mill is one of Doe
Run’s four concentrators in southeast Missouri. All four
mills produce Pb/Zn/Cu concentrates from mining and
milling metal sulfide ores utilizing conventional flotation,
with primary galena and secondary sphalerite and chalco-
pyrite minerals. All four mills also make copper concen-
trates from copper ores in separate operational campaigns
called Copper Specials by converting lead and zinc circuits
into copper circuits. Iron sulfides in ores exist in pyrite and
marcasite but historically all mills process pyrite ores not
marcasite ores due to very problematic hard-to-depress
marcasite, a highly active iron sulfide compared to pyrite.
Buick mill processes ores with rapidly varying lead,
zinc, and copper grades from three surrounding mines,
and there are extensive marcasite ores. Buick Mill refrained
in the past from processing marcasite ores when possible.
Marcasite naturally floats very easily, acts out while float-
ing, and severely disrupts separations in all lead, zinc, and
copper circuits, making it uneconomical, or much less eco-
nomical to process than other pyrite ores. There are how-
ever a lot of high lead high copper marcasite ores accessible
for mining, motivating the development of a comprehen-
sive technology system at mill operational level and on
the production line, based on fundamental principles and
advanced data analytics. Such a system would most effi-
ciently process not only marcasite ores but also the complex
and changing regular ores at Buick mill and other mills as
24-027
Processing Marcasite Copper Ore with Iron Depressant,
Hybrid Reagents, Advanced Data Analytics, Visiofroth™ and
Breakthrough Expert Control of Entire Flotation Plant—
Fundamentally Transforming Doe Run Buick Mill to Create
Value and Expand Ore Resources
Weishi Mang
The Doe Run Company, Boss, MO
Adam Steimel
The Doe Run Company, Centerville, MO
Andrea Deml
The Doe Run Company, Boss, MO
Randy Hanning
The Doe Run Company, Viburnum, MO
Brian Mangogna
The Doe Run Company, Viburnum, MO
ABSTRACT
The Doe Run Company (Doe Run), a global supplier of
lead, copper and zinc concentrates, and lead metal alloys,
has deployed an innovative hybrid reagent system which
includes an iron depressant to enable processing of high
iron marcasite ores at the company’s Buick Mill. The
deployment of this technology has increased the ability
to produce saleable concentrates from high iron marcasite
ore, thereby improving ore reserves. This system utilizes
VisioFroth ™ as a baseline and builds on its platform with
a breakthrough expert control system to operate the entire
flotation plant using VisioFroth ™ as a soft sensor like x-ray
fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and its bubble character-
istics as process parameters. This new deployment of tech-
nology utilizing Distributed Control System (DCS) as its
engine, Pi software as its data hub and a second modern
floatation reagent system has been finetuned with advanced
data analytics and Machine Learning (ML) for limitless
optimization of the mill’s operation. It has been deployed
at existing mill infrastructure, fundamentally transforming
Buick Mill.
INTRODUCTION
The Doe Run Company (Doe Run) is a global supplier of
lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) concentrates, along
with Pb metal alloys. Doe Run’s Buick Mill is one of Doe
Run’s four concentrators in southeast Missouri. All four
mills produce Pb/Zn/Cu concentrates from mining and
milling metal sulfide ores utilizing conventional flotation,
with primary galena and secondary sphalerite and chalco-
pyrite minerals. All four mills also make copper concen-
trates from copper ores in separate operational campaigns
called Copper Specials by converting lead and zinc circuits
into copper circuits. Iron sulfides in ores exist in pyrite and
marcasite but historically all mills process pyrite ores not
marcasite ores due to very problematic hard-to-depress
marcasite, a highly active iron sulfide compared to pyrite.
Buick mill processes ores with rapidly varying lead,
zinc, and copper grades from three surrounding mines,
and there are extensive marcasite ores. Buick Mill refrained
in the past from processing marcasite ores when possible.
Marcasite naturally floats very easily, acts out while float-
ing, and severely disrupts separations in all lead, zinc, and
copper circuits, making it uneconomical, or much less eco-
nomical to process than other pyrite ores. There are how-
ever a lot of high lead high copper marcasite ores accessible
for mining, motivating the development of a comprehen-
sive technology system at mill operational level and on
the production line, based on fundamental principles and
advanced data analytics. Such a system would most effi-
ciently process not only marcasite ores but also the complex
and changing regular ores at Buick mill and other mills as