With the continuous development and utilization of rich ores, high-quality mineral resources are gradually exhausted. In order to adapt to the trend of ore turning to "poor, fine, and complex", most beneficiation plants are constantly improving beneficiation technology and processes, and constantly optimizing process flows to improve beneficiation efficiency and concentrate quality. As one of the main beneficiation methods, the development of flotation technology has also received widespread attention. While ensuring the quality of beneficiation, improving the comprehensive utilization of ore is the focus of flotation process optimization. The following will introduce you to four aspects of the development of flotation process structure: the application of stage grinding and separation process, particle size flotation and intermediate flotation, branch flotation process, and heavy medium pre-selection-flotation process.
There is a grinding and flotation process called "L-S (Cleaner-Scavenger) process" that is valued by mineral processing plants and is a typical process for processing large molybdenum-containing porphyry copper mines. This process can develop and utilize medium and low-grade ores in the mine and improve the utilization rate of the original ore. The "L-S process" is actually a mixed-priority flotation process with the following advantages:
(1) The process flow, equipment layout and design layout are simple, and the process adopts closed-loop regulation, so it has a reliable automatic control effect and more stable production.
(2) During the mineral processing process, the control of grinding and flotation, the feed particle size of the ore, the pulp concentration, the reagent addition system, the flotation time and other factors are very convenient and unique.
(3) The working efficiency of the grinding equipment and flotation machine in the first stage of mineral processing is high, the investment and operating costs of the equipment are low, and the obtained process indicators are very high.
(4) The waste tailings discharged after mineral processing have a coarse particle size, which is convenient for stacking and subsequent reuse.
These advantages are of great significance to the improvement of economic benefits of the ore dressing plant and the stability of ore dressing production.
When dealing with ores with fine impregnation particle size, easy to mud and high mud content, the beneficiation plant will give priority to the grain-class flotation and mud and sand separation process. Grain-class flotation and mud and sand separation processes can also be used to expand the lower limit of fine-grained mineral recovery particle size, reduce the interference of ore mud, control the use of drugs, etc. This process can improve the sorting efficiency and process indicators.
Intermediate flotation after coarse grinding can reduce the mudification of monomer dissociated minerals. In the actual beneficiation process, a considerable part of the useful minerals after the coarse grinding process are in the coarse particle size, and they cannot enter the flotation circuit with the overflow of the cyclone due to their coarse particle size. No regrinding process is set before flotation, so the intermediate flotation process can be arranged to timely recover the useful minerals of the coarse ore particles, and the tailings part needs to be graded and ground. Therefore, the over-grinding phenomenon is significantly reduced, the loss of useful minerals in fineness is reduced, and the average particle size of the final concentrate is increased, which is conducive to filtration and reduces the moisture content of the filter cake.
The branch flotation process can be used to process ores with lower raw ore grades to improve the raw ore grade. The mineral particles in the difficult-to-select and fine-grained part of the slurry can be used as carriers with the foam product of the previous part, or with the help of the remaining reagents of the previous part to achieve the purpose of reducing the reagent consumption. These can be used to improve the selection index of flotation.
Heavy medium preselection can discard the waste rock and gangue minerals of lead-zinc ore, and the amount of waste discarded is 35-40%, so preselection can effectively improve the selected grade of the ore. When the ore grade continues to decline, the heavy medium preselection-flotation process can also ensure or improve the metal recovery rate. The heavy medium preselection-flotation process of lead-zinc ore is widely used in mineral processing plants.
To sum up, the development of flotation process structure plays a crucial role in coping with the trend of increasingly poor and fine ores. Through various optimization processes such as stage grinding and separation, particle size flotation, intermediate flotation, branch flotation, and heavy medium pre-selection and flotation, it not only improves the beneficiation efficiency and concentrate quality, but also significantly improves the ore's comprehensive utilization degree. These technological advances provide a solid guarantee for the mineral processing plant in terms of resource utilization and economic benefits. In the face of more complex ore properties in the future, continuous innovation and improvement of flotation processes will become the key path for the mineral processing industry to achieve sustainable development.
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