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Studies on multi-gravity
separator for rejection of acid insolubles in a copper concentrate
The copper ore from Malanjkhand, India is of very low grade in nature with
major amounts of quartz as gangue. In addition to chalcopyrite, the ore also
contains oxidized copper minerals in considerable amounts. During flotation,
these oxidized minerals require additional amounts of reagents for reporting
into concentrate. Higher reagent dosage not only floats the oxidized copper
minerals but also results in collection of high amounts of acid insolubles
in the copper concentrate resulting in inferior metallurgical grade. To
alleviate this problem it was planned to process the copper flotation
concentrate further in a Multi-Gravity Separator (MGS), exploiting the
specific gravity differential between the copper bearing minerals and the
associated gangue under enhanced gravitational fields. A 33 full factorial
set of experimental design was used to understand the effect of change in
important MGS variables on copper and acid insolubles grade and copper
recovery in the concentrate. The results have indicated that an increase in
wash water and drum inclination and a decrease in drum revolutions will
increase copper grade, decrease the acid insolubles grade and decrease the
copper metal recovery in the concentrate. Statistical analysis of the
results have indicated that among the variables studied, the change in drum
revolution influences the metallurgical results most followed by drum
inclination and wash water. Further, the equations developed have indicated
that there is complex inter-actional effects between wash water, drum
inclination and drum revolutions which influences the metallurgical values
to a considerable extent. |
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