Flocculation and settling characteristics of copper ore fines suspension from a concentration plant

In the present investigation, the thickener inflow suspension from a copper ore concentration plant was collected and its flocculation and settling ch aracteristics were studied in the laboratory. The suspension contained abou t 7 wt% solids with almost neutral pH. No flocculant or chemical coagulant was used in the thickening process in the existing practice, Two laboratory synthesized graft copolymers, namely, starch-g-polyacrylamide and amylopec tin-g-polyacrylamide, along with lour other commercially available polymeri c flocculants were tested for the comparative study. Amylopectin-g-polyacry lamide performed better than others in the investigations on the copper ore suspension.