Abstract
Pre-treatment of copper sulphide and oxide ores using microwave radiation causes a difference in their floatability through change in the surface properties of the minerals. The aim of this study is to investigate the behaviour of Sungun porphyry copper ore under the influence of microwave radiation. In this regard, the feed sample of Sungun copper flotation circuit has been subjected to microwave irradiation for 0-120 s and a radiation power of 0-600 W. The prepared samples were then subjected to flotation experiments. According to the results, the grade of sulphide and oxide Cu minerals, as well as the grade of Fe, increased by microwave irradiation in all experiments compared to the non-irradiated samples. At the same time, recovery rate has a reversed trend and decreased in all cases. Variations in the recovery rates of copper oxides and sulphides due to microwave irradiation are different. Increasing the power of irradiation resulted in a greater reduction in the recovery of copper oxides than of sulphides. On the other hand, increasing the power of microwave irradiation reduced the amount of iron recovery in the copper concentrate and with an increase in the duration of microwave irradiation, the reduction of iron recovery values is even more pronounced. Changes in the power and duration of microwave radiation have not had a significant effect on variations in oxide copper grade in flotation tailings. While the grade of sulphides in tailing is affected by the parameters of microwave irradiation and with an increase in power and duration of microwave irradiation, the grade of copper in tailing increases.
Highlights
Microwave energy is non-ionized electromagnetic radiation with a frequency in the range of 300 MHz - 300 GHz and a wavelength between 300 - 1 mm
The aim of this study is to investigate the behaviour of Sungun porphyry copper ore under the influence of microwave radiation
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of microwaves on the grade and recovery of flotation of Sungun copper sulphide ore
Summary
Microwave energy is non-ionized electromagnetic radiation with a frequency in the range of 300 MHz - 300 GHz and a wavelength between 300 - 1 mm. Microwave irradiation has been used as a pretreatment process for comminution, leaching, flotation and gravity separation of various minerals (Can and Bayraktar, 2007; Batchelor et al, 2016; Marion et al., 2016; Batchelor et al, 2017). Studies in this field have focused more on the effect of microwaves on the grindability and breakage of minerals and reducing the energy consumption in the comminution process
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