(Special session) Basic Studies on mining and smelting technologies for metals resources

[2208-17-09] Mineralogical characterization and development of flotation flowsheet for Co/Cu mine tailings.

○Refilwe Sandra Magwaneng¹, Tatsuhiro Ono¹, Kazuya Sunada¹, Michihiro Akahori¹, Taro Kamiya¹, Koichi Hashimoto¹, Anita Parbhakar-Fox², Helen Degeling³ (1. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, 2. Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Australia, 3. Geological Survey of Queensland, Australia)

Chairman:Koichi Hashimoto(JOGMEC)

Keywords:cobalt, mine tailings, mineralogy , flotation

Cobalt is a highly volatile economic metal; however, its significance can be noted over the years as a strategic metal. An increasing demand for cobalt forces for searching of resources that offer potential beneficiation. Historically, some mines have recovered cobalt as a by-product from laterite and sulfide ores. On the other hand, some cobalt has been lost to mine tailings. The onus is on us to go back to these mine tailings and develop technologies that can extract cobalt and other valuable minerals from them.
The ore properties (mineralogy and physical properties) of cobalt resources are highly varied, making it even more challenging to develop standard treatment process to accommodate these variations. The current study focuses on understanding the fundamental mineralogical characteristics of the cobalt/copper mine tailings from Australia and developing flotation flowsheet for their processing. Mineralogical characterization of cobalt/copper tailings indicate that cobalt is mainly associated with pyrite that is highly liberated >90%. Copper is present as chalcopyrite and is associated with pyrite and other gangue minerals.
Flotation tests were performed with different collector. PEX has proven to be the best collector achieving more than 60% for cobalt recovery. Copper recovery was generally low (<40%) for all collectors used. Despite the low bulk concentrations of cobalt and copper, the mineralogical occurrence of the valuable minerals on the tailings is promising due to their liberation. The current results therefore suggest that a number of improvements require further investigation, notably the treatment of fine particles and reagents for bulk concentration.