2
A CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF BUICK MILL
FLOWSHEET WITHOUT CU ROUGHER
SCAVENGER
Figure 1 is the flowsheet of entire Pb/Zn/Cu mill t before
adding the Cu rougher scavenger. It shows interconnected
Pb, Zn, and Cu flotation circuits with the 2nd modern
reagent system of Pb, Zn, and Cu collectors and Fe and
Pb depressants and their introduction points. Bulk reagents
are not the subject of this article, so not included in this
flowsheet. There are four rougher lines each for Pb and Zn
flotation circuits, but noticeably only one Cu rougher line.
The last rougher of each Pb and Zn rougher line is a pas-
sive mechanical scavenger with manually adjustable air that
returns froth back to the corresponding Pb or Zn condition
tank. These passive mechanical scavengers, albeit simple
and smooth, inherently made it nearly impossible or very
expensive to introduce any reagents. It is most noticeable
that the single Cu rougher line of limited two roughers does
not have even passive mechanical scavenger when compar-
ing to the powerful Pb and Zn rougher lines. Cu mineral
processing plants invariably have copper rougher scavengers
to improve recovery. Buick mill runs its Cu circuit continu-
ously to produce both Cu and Pb final concentrates from
increasingly more complex Pb/Zn/Cu ores with a challeng-
ing separation of chalcopyrite from galena. So, it became
evident and imperative for Buick mill to install Cu rougher
scavenger and transform from passive mechanical to chemi-
cal scavenger with FrothSense+ ™ camera and technology
and expert control.
In a simple way the flowsheet shows that Pb circuit
switches to Cu circuit and Zn rougher to Cu rougher scav-
enger for Cu specials and processes Cu ores. The same is
Figure 1. Buick mill Pb/Zn/Cu flotation flowsheet with 2nd Modern Flotation Reagent system
A CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF BUICK MILL
FLOWSHEET WITHOUT CU ROUGHER
SCAVENGER
Figure 1 is the flowsheet of entire Pb/Zn/Cu mill t before
adding the Cu rougher scavenger. It shows interconnected
Pb, Zn, and Cu flotation circuits with the 2nd modern
reagent system of Pb, Zn, and Cu collectors and Fe and
Pb depressants and their introduction points. Bulk reagents
are not the subject of this article, so not included in this
flowsheet. There are four rougher lines each for Pb and Zn
flotation circuits, but noticeably only one Cu rougher line.
The last rougher of each Pb and Zn rougher line is a pas-
sive mechanical scavenger with manually adjustable air that
returns froth back to the corresponding Pb or Zn condition
tank. These passive mechanical scavengers, albeit simple
and smooth, inherently made it nearly impossible or very
expensive to introduce any reagents. It is most noticeable
that the single Cu rougher line of limited two roughers does
not have even passive mechanical scavenger when compar-
ing to the powerful Pb and Zn rougher lines. Cu mineral
processing plants invariably have copper rougher scavengers
to improve recovery. Buick mill runs its Cu circuit continu-
ously to produce both Cu and Pb final concentrates from
increasingly more complex Pb/Zn/Cu ores with a challeng-
ing separation of chalcopyrite from galena. So, it became
evident and imperative for Buick mill to install Cu rougher
scavenger and transform from passive mechanical to chemi-
cal scavenger with FrothSense+ ™ camera and technology
and expert control.
In a simple way the flowsheet shows that Pb circuit
switches to Cu circuit and Zn rougher to Cu rougher scav-
enger for Cu specials and processes Cu ores. The same is
Figure 1. Buick mill Pb/Zn/Cu flotation flowsheet with 2nd Modern Flotation Reagent system