Improving the performance of a low-grade porphyry copper ore flotation plant using a simulator that can predict grade vs. recovery curves

Abstract

A large porphyry copper flotation plant has been simulated using a flotation model developed from first principles using the hydrophobic force as a kinetic parameter (Huang et al., 2022; Gupta et al., 2022). The input to the simulation was the size-by-class liberation matrix (mij) of a flotation feed, which was essential for predicting the size-by-class flotation rate constants (kij) and hence grade vs. recovery curves for the flotation bank. The model can be used to predict the performance of a flotation circuit provided that mij matrices are available for the feeds to the flotation banks in the circuit. With limited information on feed characteristics, we carried out a circuit simulation of the plant with some simplifying assumptions. The results suggest that significant financial benefits can be gained by recovering the slow-floating particles from the cleaner-scavenger tails that constitute the circulating load using an advanced separation technology in a separate copper recovery unit. With this approach, it is possible to substantially increase the throughput while maintaining copper recoveries and concentrate grades.