TECHNICAL TRANSFORMATION OF MINERAL PROCESSING FLOWSHEET AT YONGPING COPPER MINE

Shortly after the concentrator of Yongping Copper Mine was put into operation, the ore washing operation was removed from crushing flowsheet because of low ore washing efficiency and the blocking of the flowsheet caused by the hanging up of powder ore in surge ore bin and a planar ore bin to store the undersize product of pre screening was build in secondary crushing. On the basis of these measures, the whole crushing flowsheet was unblocked and the expected output was reached. In respect of flotation technology, the bulk flotation flowsheet used at the beginning of production was unsuitable for the properties of the ore. It was shown by the comparison between their flotation production indexes that selective flotation was better than bulk flotation in recovery of Ag or Cu and was similar in recovery of S. However, the pH value of selective flotation was very difficult to be controlled and the recovery of S was fluctuated. Therefore, the isoflotability was introduced into the flotation flowsheet, then a good flotation result had been achieved.