GECAMINES often uses the minerals from the R022 embankment to feed the Kolwezi concentrator when there is a shortage of deposits.
The objective pursued is to make a comparative study of the collectors (T3Y, FlominC7160, AERO MX5149 and KAX/MixtureRinkalore10 mixture) on the flotation performances of the mineral from the R022 embankment rich in chrysocolla grading 3.23% copper and 1.6% cobalt at the concentrator.
Flotation tests were carried out using T3Y as a collector under the conditions of the reagents in use regime, at the end of which we have:
26.3% copper recovery yield with a content of 19.29% for the head concentrate and 73.8% copper recovery yield with a content of 6.99% for the rough concentrate with a rejection depletion of 0.98%.
So, these results constituted the reference conditions for our work.
Other tests were carried out to compare the performances of T3Y to FlominC7160 collectors, AEROMX5149 and KAX/MixtureRinkalore10 on the copper-cobalt ore of the R022 embankment.
It appears from the tests that the use of FlominC7160 gave good performances for copper. The best performance was deduced at the dose of 6 g/t with 50.2% copper recovery yield and a copper content of 28.21% for the head concentrate, 88.8% copper recovery yield with 12.49% copper content for the rough concentrate with a rejection depletion of 0.91%. The FlominC7160 collector therefore allowed good selectivity.