Minerals Engineering 18 (2005) 459461 This article is also available online at: www.elsevier.

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Technical note

The inuence of particle size and collector on the otation of a very low grade auriferous ore
S.V.C. Bravo
b

a,z

, M.L. Torem a, M.B.M. Monte

b,*

, A.J.B. Dutra c, L.A. Tondo

a Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, 22453-900, Brazil , 900, Centre for Mineral Technology (CETEM), Coordination of Mineral Processing, Laboratory for Surface Chemistry, Avenida Ipe Ilha do Funda o, Rio de Janeiro 21941-590, Brazil c Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Program, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 21945-970, Brazil d Process Department, Rio Paracatu Minerac a o, RPM, 38600-000, Brazil

Received 15 May 2004; accepted 9 August 2004

Abstract The correlation between the otation response of coarse particles containing gold and the reagent concentration system was examined using a very low grade auriferous sulphide ore. It was pointed out that an increase of collector concentration is needed in order to render a higher degree of hydrophobic coverage of the particles, favouring the stability of the particlebubble aggregate. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Froth otation; Gold ores; Sulphide ores; Oxidation; Flotation collectors; Particle size

1. Introduction A Brazilian mining company process a very lowgrade gold ore, with an average grade of 0.459 g/t and a cut-o grade of 0.345 g/t. In order to keep the same gold production with a lower ore grade, the necessity of processing a larger amount of run of mine (ROM) becomes a priority and the grinding unit may become a constrain. The residence time decrease in the grinding circuit allied to collector optimisation in the otation circuit can be an interesting possibility to achieve the desired goal (Monte et al., 2002).

2. Experimental Carefully collected samples, of 1.4 kg each, were ground to dierent size fractions in order to investigate the eect of particle size on gold and sulphide recovery. After grinding to the desired P80, the pulp, with 20% of solids, was transferred directly to the Denver otation cell. The otation experiments were accomplished with potassium amyl xanthate (PAX) and sodium mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) as collectors, with dosages of 30 g/t and 60 g/t. In some experiments, the collectors were mixed at dierent proportions. The frother, methylisobutylcarbinol, MIBC (20 g/t), was added 5 min after the addition of the collector. The pH was controlled with lime at 6.0. The otation time was 6 min. All the concentrate and tailings were collected, dried, weighted and chemical analysed (Au, S, Fe and As). 3. Results and Discussion The results from Table 1 indicate that gold is essentially present in all size fractions. The fractions

Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 3865 7283; fax: +55 21 2290 9196. E-mail addresses: mmonte@cetem.gov.br (M.B.M. Monte), adutra@metalmat.ufrj.br (A.J.B. Dutra). z Deceased. 0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2004.08.006

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S.V.C. Bravo et al. / Minerals Engineering 18 (2005) 459461

coarser than 295lm represent 57% of the gold contained in the sample and its distribution is very close to the sulphur, arsenic and iron distributions.

The results presented in Fig. 1 turned evident that higher gold recoveries can be obtained with only 30 g/t of PAX, for a feed size particles with P80 = 68 and 86 lm. On the other hand, a signicative increase in gold

Table 1 Particle size and Au, S, Fe and As distribution in the Morro do Ouro ore sample Size (lm) Weight (%) Au content (g/t) Distribution (%) Au 1700 + 1168 1168 + 833 833 + 89 589 + 417 417 + 295 295 + 208 208 + 147 147 + 104 104 + 74 74 + 53 53 + 43 43 + 38 38 Total
a

S 18.90 17.09 7.34 12.45 9.35 8.56 5.92 4.73 3.20 1.87 2.16 0.73 7.70 100

As 13.47 17.08 7.81 11.52 11.85 9.99 5.71 6.75 4.08 1.69 2.34 0.60 7.14 100

Fe 18.85 15.62 6.25 9.35 7.76 6.97 4.07 4.08 2.78 1.91 2.18 0.91 19.26 100

18.50 15.77 5.33 7.89 6.46 5.56 5.28 3.60 2.45 1.48 1.76 0.84 25.08 100
a

0.345 0.466 0.247 0.218 0.380 0.447 0.704 0.412 1.230 0.706 0.425 0.338 0.057 0.334

19.01 22.01 3.94 5.15 7.35 7.44 11.14 4.44 9.01 3.14 2.24 0.85 4.28 100

Calculated average gold content.

100

10
PAX (30 g /t) PAX (60 g /t)

Gold Recovery, %

80 70 60 50 68 86 114 13 0

Gold content, %

90

8 6 4 2 0 PAX( 30 g/t) PAX( 60 g/t) 68 86 114 130

(a)

P80 , m

(b)

P80, m

Fig. 1. Average gold recovery (a) and content (b) as function of feed-size range for Morro do Ouro ore sample by otation conducted with PAX, in the concentrations of 30 and 60 g/t.

100 MBT (30 g/t)

10 MBT (30 g/t)

Gold recovery, %

90 80 70 60 50 68 86

MBT (60 g/t)

Gold content, %

8 6 4 2 0

MBT (60 g/t)

114

130

68

86

114

130

(a )

P80 , m

(b )

P80 , m

Fig. 2. Average gold recovery (a) and gold content (b) as function of feed-size range for Morro do Ouro ore sample by otation conducted with MBT, for two dierent concentrations.

S.V.C. Bravo et al. / Minerals Engineering 18 (2005) 459461

100 80 60 40 20 0 100%PAX 50% MBT 75% MBT 100% MBT 60 gt (MBT + PAX)
sulphides gold

461

130 m

Recovery, %

The best result was a gold and sulphur recovery of 85.33 and 56.64% respectively, obtained with a PAX concentration of 60 g/t and particle size with P80 = 130 lm (Fig. 3). These results make evident that, for the ore under study, equivalent gold recoveries can be achieved for coarser particles, allowing a decrease in the grinding time and consequently permitting the processing of a larger amount of ROM.

4. Conclusions For a more ecient otation of the coarse and intermediate particles of the ore, a need of higher collector concentration was veried, in order to render a higher degree of hydrophobic coverage on the particles, favouring the stability of the particle-bubble aggregate.

Fig. 3. The inuence of collector systems on the recovery of gold and sulphur for feed size range of P80=130 lm.

recovery was observed, with an increase in PAX concentration, for a feed size with P80 = 130 lm. In this case, the higher recovery due to the increase in collector concentration did not result in a relevant decrease in the concentrate grade (Fig. 1b). As indicated previously, an increase of the coarser particles recovery was observed for an increase of MBT concentration from 30 to 60 g/t (Fig. 2). The increase of particles size can result in a longer induction time, demanding a higher degree of the hydrophobic coverage on the particles surface in order to increase the stability of the particle-bubble aggregate (Feng and Aldrich, 1999; Subrahmanyam and Forssberg, 1988).

References
Feng, D., Aldrich, C., 1999. Eect of particle size on otation performance of complex sulphide ores. Minerals Engineering 7, 721731. Monte, M.B.M., Dutra, A.J.B., Albuquerque Jr., C.R.F., Tondo, L.A., Lins, F.F., 2002. The inuence of oxidation state of pyrite and arsenopyrite on the otation of an auriferous sulphide ore. Minerals Engineering 15, 11131120. Subrahmanyam, T.V., Forssberg, E., 1988. Froth stability, particle entrainment and drainage in otationA review. International Journal of Mineral Processing 23, 3353.