著者

松岡 秀和 三觜 幸平 河田 真伸 高谷 雄太郎 所 千晴

出版者

一般社団法人 資源・素材学会

雑誌

Journal of MMIJ (ISSN:18816118)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.138, no.2, pp.12-18, 2022-02-28 (Released:2022-02-10)

参考文献数

31

---

Copper sulfide minerals are the major raw materials for copper products. Copper sulfide minerals are mined at copper mines and concentrated by flotation process. In recent years, the mining of refractory copper ores, which is difficult to concentrate by flotation due to their fine grain size, presence of multiple copper mineral species, and fluctuation of the content ratio of these minerals in feed ore. In addition, the hydrophilization of copper mineral surfaces due to oxidation and the mineral content variation of ore result in poor and unpredictable performance of flotation operation. In this study, therefore, we focused on the activation of the copper mineral surfaces using sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) to render the surfaces hydrophobic and tried to quantify the effect of the fluctuation of mineral content ratio by using a new flotation kinetic model. Two samples showing different content ratios of chalcocite, bornite, and chalcopyrite and having fully oxidized surface were used in the flotation tests. We established a new flotation kinetic model by considering the reaction between the copper mineral surface and NaHS and the depression of floatability by adsorption of hydrogen sulfide ions onto the copper mineral surface. As a result, a good relation was confirmed between the model and the flotation test results for both ore samples. This result showed that our model can accurately predict the flotation results of refractory copper ores and will encourage the further usage of these refractory copper ores in the future.