3612 XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3
was achieved through the development and application of
new technologies.
PROBLEMS IN PLANT OPERATION AND
TECHNOLOGY OPTIMIZATION IDEAS
BASED ON ORE CHARACTERISTICS
As a typical sedimentary lead-zinc mine, galena, sphaler-
ite and pyrite are found as the main sulfide minerals with
dolomite and calcite as the main gangue minerals. Barite
is found in certain ores as well. In the current operation,
only lead and zinc minerals in the ores are concentrated
using a Pb-Zn sequential selective flotation flowsheet with
the majority of the waste components in the ore disposed
as tailings. A high yield of tailings and limited opportunity
to backfill has ultimately generated the current operational
dilemma due to the sharply reducing tailings pond capac-
ity being available. Furthermore, components such as dolo-
mite and barite have not been recovered, and the economic
potential of the ore has not been fully realised. This mine
located in an important dolomite producing area of China,
with a mature dolomite production and sales industrial
cluster. However, the dolomite in the ores is too fine to be
used as building materials after grinding and is discharged
to the tailings pond, which leads to additional tailings dis-
posal fees.
Process mineralogy analysis was conducted by
BGRIMM to investigate this ore. Figure 1 shows the dis-
semination characteristics of galena and sphalerite in the
ore.
Figure 1 illustrates that the galena and sphalerite have
different grain sizes and are embedded in the gangue con-
sisting mainly of dolomite. Free sulfide mineral particles
and sulphide minerals aggregates in the ores are predomi-
nantly embedded in this way, while dolomite occurs in
coarse grains. Therefore, it is possible to recover liberated
dolomite particles at a relatively coarse particle size without
affecting lead and zinc recovery. With dolomite separated
from the ore as coarse particles, the ore mass introduced
to the downstream high energy-consuming grinding cir-
cuit will decrease drastically, thereby solving the problem
of insufficient tailings ponds capacity as well as creating
improved economic benefits. Targeting the barite in the
ore, the owner has developed a laboratory flotation flow-
sheet, however there are problems in the industrial applica-
tion. A new beneficiation technology development study is
required to investigate the efficient recovery of barite.
Based on above research route, a beneficiation process
including multi-stage tailing rejection has been proposed.
A XRT sorting machine and dense medium cyclone are
used to reject low density dolomite as products in two
stages, then lead and zinc are recovered through flotation.
A portion of the flotation tailings are treated using a reflux
classifier to reject low density gangue minerals. The barite
is upgraded through flotation and shaking table thereby
obtaining an acceptable barite products. By utilizing the
proposed process, most of the valuable components in the
ore can be recovered as products, while the rest can be used
as filling aggregates, achieving full resource utilization of
the ore and solving the current problem of insufficient tail-
ings pond storage capacity.
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Materials
The ore samples were obtained from PanLong lead-zinc
mine in Guangxi (China). The samples were crushed
through a jaw crusher. The chemical composition of the ore
samples, was analyzed by ICP-MS with the result shown in
Table 1.
a b
sphalerite
dolomite
galena
dolomite
Figure 1. Dissemination characteristics of galena and sphalerite in the ores (reflective
microscope, a. galena and b. sphalerite)
was achieved through the development and application of
new technologies.
PROBLEMS IN PLANT OPERATION AND
TECHNOLOGY OPTIMIZATION IDEAS
BASED ON ORE CHARACTERISTICS
As a typical sedimentary lead-zinc mine, galena, sphaler-
ite and pyrite are found as the main sulfide minerals with
dolomite and calcite as the main gangue minerals. Barite
is found in certain ores as well. In the current operation,
only lead and zinc minerals in the ores are concentrated
using a Pb-Zn sequential selective flotation flowsheet with
the majority of the waste components in the ore disposed
as tailings. A high yield of tailings and limited opportunity
to backfill has ultimately generated the current operational
dilemma due to the sharply reducing tailings pond capac-
ity being available. Furthermore, components such as dolo-
mite and barite have not been recovered, and the economic
potential of the ore has not been fully realised. This mine
located in an important dolomite producing area of China,
with a mature dolomite production and sales industrial
cluster. However, the dolomite in the ores is too fine to be
used as building materials after grinding and is discharged
to the tailings pond, which leads to additional tailings dis-
posal fees.
Process mineralogy analysis was conducted by
BGRIMM to investigate this ore. Figure 1 shows the dis-
semination characteristics of galena and sphalerite in the
ore.
Figure 1 illustrates that the galena and sphalerite have
different grain sizes and are embedded in the gangue con-
sisting mainly of dolomite. Free sulfide mineral particles
and sulphide minerals aggregates in the ores are predomi-
nantly embedded in this way, while dolomite occurs in
coarse grains. Therefore, it is possible to recover liberated
dolomite particles at a relatively coarse particle size without
affecting lead and zinc recovery. With dolomite separated
from the ore as coarse particles, the ore mass introduced
to the downstream high energy-consuming grinding cir-
cuit will decrease drastically, thereby solving the problem
of insufficient tailings ponds capacity as well as creating
improved economic benefits. Targeting the barite in the
ore, the owner has developed a laboratory flotation flow-
sheet, however there are problems in the industrial applica-
tion. A new beneficiation technology development study is
required to investigate the efficient recovery of barite.
Based on above research route, a beneficiation process
including multi-stage tailing rejection has been proposed.
A XRT sorting machine and dense medium cyclone are
used to reject low density dolomite as products in two
stages, then lead and zinc are recovered through flotation.
A portion of the flotation tailings are treated using a reflux
classifier to reject low density gangue minerals. The barite
is upgraded through flotation and shaking table thereby
obtaining an acceptable barite products. By utilizing the
proposed process, most of the valuable components in the
ore can be recovered as products, while the rest can be used
as filling aggregates, achieving full resource utilization of
the ore and solving the current problem of insufficient tail-
ings pond storage capacity.
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Materials
The ore samples were obtained from PanLong lead-zinc
mine in Guangxi (China). The samples were crushed
through a jaw crusher. The chemical composition of the ore
samples, was analyzed by ICP-MS with the result shown in
Table 1.
a b
sphalerite
dolomite
galena
dolomite
Figure 1. Dissemination characteristics of galena and sphalerite in the ores (reflective
microscope, a. galena and b. sphalerite)