XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 2881
froth. To compensate, the use of a froth crowder, reducing
the froth surface area (FSA) was tested in an attempt to
ensure higher recoveries. The copper grade-recoveries are
presented in Figure 3, the kinetic curves in Figure 4 and the
selectivity curves against silica in Figure 5.
On HGT, the reduction in FSA to a slight decrease
in metallurgical performance, with slower kinetics for the
copper-bearing sulphides which is not associated with a
higher grade or a higher selectivity against silica. The results
are very close to each other so they could be within experi-
mental error. Either way, it shows that for the high copper
grade tailings stream, the use of a crowder might not be
necessary.
On LGT, the reduction in FSA on the contrary leads to
a very high increase in copper recovery (+9%) while main-
taining similar grades. The kinetics are highly accelerated
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
Cu Recovery, %
HGT
1 2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Cu Recovery, %
LGT
2 3
Figure 3. Copper grade-recovery curves for HGT and LGT tests with (HGT-2 and LGT-3) and without
crowder (HGT-1 and LGT-2)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of cycles
HGT
1 2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of cycles
LGT
2 3
Figure 4. Copper recovery depending on the number of cycles for HGT and LGT tests with (HGT-2 and
LGT-3) and without crowder (HGT-1 and LGT-2)
Cu
Grade,
%
Cu
Grade,%
Cu
r
overy,
%
Cu
r
overy,
%