ENHANCING THE FLOTABILITY OF MALANJKHAND (INDIA) MIXED SULFIDE OXIDE COPPER ORE WITH LIX-65NS

Background/aims: in the treatment of the Malanjkhand copper ore, the o xide component remains unaffected and either goes to tailings or is se parately stockpiled for future treatment by hydrometallurgical route. To overcome these drawbacks, the application of the reagent LIX 65 NS as collector has been undertaken in the laboratory to enhance the roug her flotation recovery with satisfactory concentrate grade. Methods: B atch flotation experiments were carried out with feed charge of 200 g in a standard Denver D-12 sub-aeration machine using a 1 litre cell. A t the end of the flotation test, both concentrate and tailing were dri ed, weighed and analysed for copper as per standard procedure. The kin etic studies were carried out by collecting the concentrate at the cum ulative time interval of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 min. Results and conclusions : The effect of reagent concentration, pH, conditioning time, frother etc., were studied. The results of the batch flotation experiments wit h LIX 65NS had demonstrated better results than with sodium isopropyl xanthate being practiced in the plant. It was possible to obtain a cop per grade of 17.7% with more than 92% recovery in a single stage flota tion from the mixed ore containing around 0.5% copper. The flotation p erformance using collectors LIX 65NS and xanthate were studied both wi th respect to kinetics and selectivity.