Influence of the Use of Ammonium Sulfate and Citric Acid on the Buoyancy of Minerals in Copper-cobalt Plant Process (Case of 635 Deposit Fed at Kambove

Abstract

The objective pursued in this work is testing the performance of two new reagents namely ammonium sulfate and citric acid, on buoyancy of Kamfundwa ore currently treated at Kambove Concentrator. Optimization tests were conducted in order to determine the optimal doses of reagents commonly used, in this case Sodium hydrosulfide (NaSH), the amylxanthate potassium (KAX), Sodium silicate (Na2SiO3), and the mixture fuel-fatty acid. Metallurgical results obtained with these tests were used as reference for further work. Tests with citric acid alone could not improve the metallurgical results obtained under standard conditions, the same finding was observed in tests with ammonium sulfate alone and that performance seemed to be much closer to those of reference tests. We finally realized flotation tests by combining citric acid and ammonium sulfate in order to streamline the synergy of these two reagents. It appears from these tests that at the dose of 600 g / t of citric acid and 400 g / t of ammonium sulfate, metallurgical performance obtained are better than previously. The following results were achieved during the batch flotation tests: 18.87% as copper content of the head concentrate, with a recovery rate of 55.34%, and 10.81% as copper content of the global concentrate; for a copper recovery corresponding to 80.94%. This mixture of citric acid and ammonium sulfate has allowed good selectivity and a reduction of gangue trained to the concentrate.