Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems

There is a general trend towards more responsible water management across the minerals industry. Two important strategies have been implementation of water reuse and sourcing of alternative water supplies that otherwise would have been disposed of, such as treated effluent. Both strategies have been...

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Main Authors: Liu, W., Moran, Chris, Vink, S.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35726
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recordtype eprints
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-357262017-09-13T15:30:52Z Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems Liu, W. Moran, Chris Vink, S. There is a general trend towards more responsible water management across the minerals industry. Two important strategies have been implementation of water reuse and sourcing of alternative water supplies that otherwise would have been disposed of, such as treated effluent. Both strategies have been shown to result in increased inorganic and organic loads (including bacteria) in mineral processing, in particular, froth flotation. A number of studies have shown the effect of inorganic water constituents on the performance of flotation. However, far less is known about the impacts and processes associated with organic constituents, particularly bacteria. This study investigated the quantitative relationship between bacterial concentration in flotation water using E. coli as the model bacterium and the flotation performance of chalcopyrite. Flotation tests were carried out to quantify the effect of E. coli cells on the flotation of three chalcopyrite-containing systems of increasing complexity: high-purity chalcopyrite, a simulated ore with controlled gangue, and a porphyry copper-gold ore. The experimental results show that E. coli cells negatively affected the flotation efficiency of chalcopyrite in all three systems. The bacterial cells also negatively affected the flotation efficiency of pyrite in the simulated ore system, and gold in the porphyry ore system. The bacterial cells preferentially attached to pyrite over chalcopyrite in the simulated ore system. Findings in this study contribute to identifying some of the potential risks posed by using bacteria-containing water for flotation, when attempting to improve water efficiency. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35726 10.1016/j.minpro.2013.04.017 Elsevier restricted
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Curtin University Malaysia
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description There is a general trend towards more responsible water management across the minerals industry. Two important strategies have been implementation of water reuse and sourcing of alternative water supplies that otherwise would have been disposed of, such as treated effluent. Both strategies have been shown to result in increased inorganic and organic loads (including bacteria) in mineral processing, in particular, froth flotation. A number of studies have shown the effect of inorganic water constituents on the performance of flotation. However, far less is known about the impacts and processes associated with organic constituents, particularly bacteria. This study investigated the quantitative relationship between bacterial concentration in flotation water using E. coli as the model bacterium and the flotation performance of chalcopyrite. Flotation tests were carried out to quantify the effect of E. coli cells on the flotation of three chalcopyrite-containing systems of increasing complexity: high-purity chalcopyrite, a simulated ore with controlled gangue, and a porphyry copper-gold ore. The experimental results show that E. coli cells negatively affected the flotation efficiency of chalcopyrite in all three systems. The bacterial cells also negatively affected the flotation efficiency of pyrite in the simulated ore system, and gold in the porphyry ore system. The bacterial cells preferentially attached to pyrite over chalcopyrite in the simulated ore system. Findings in this study contribute to identifying some of the potential risks posed by using bacteria-containing water for flotation, when attempting to improve water efficiency. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.
format Journal Article
author Liu, W.
Moran, Chris
Vink, S.
spellingShingle Liu, W.
Moran, Chris
Vink, S.
Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
author_facet Liu, W.
Moran, Chris
Vink, S.
author_sort Liu, W.
title Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
title_short Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
title_full Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
title_fullStr Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
title_full_unstemmed Impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
title_sort impact of chalcopyrite depression by water-borne bacteria in pure and combined mineral systems
publisher Elsevier
publishDate 2013
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35726
first_indexed 2018-09-06T22:22:29Z
last_indexed 2018-09-06T22:22:29Z
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