Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment
In this paper, mineralogy, grain size, dissemination, textural consistency and mineral associations were determined for a commercially exploited porphyry copper ore using a Mineral Liberation Analyser (MLA). The ore was subjected to high power density microwave treatments in a single mode cavity at...
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Elsevier
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33545/ |
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| author | Batchelor, A.R. Jones, D.A. Plint, S. Kingman, S.W. |
| author_facet | Batchelor, A.R. Jones, D.A. Plint, S. Kingman, S.W. |
| author_sort | Batchelor, A.R. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this paper, mineralogy, grain size, dissemination, textural consistency and mineral associations were determined for a commercially exploited porphyry copper ore using a Mineral Liberation Analyser (MLA). The ore was subjected to high power density microwave treatments in a single mode cavity at 15 kW and approximately 2 kW h/t. The untreated and microwave-treated samples were subsequently milled to two grind sizes near the nominal plant grind size and a size-by-liberation analysis performed. The analysis revealed that equivalent liberation could be obtained at a grind size approximately 50–60 μm coarser than the nominal plant grind due to the microwave treatment. Flotation testing indicated that an increase in copper recovery of approximately 1% could be achieved, or that a grind size increase of approximately 30 μm may potentially yield equivalent copper recovery due to the microwave-enhanced liberation observed. However, statistical analyses demonstrated that it is difficult to attain confidence in recovery increases of approximately 1% even when conducting batch flotation tests in triplicate. The ore under investigation had previously been shown to produce only modest average reductions in strength (∼8%) under similar microwave treatment conditions due to a prevalence of many unfavourable textures. However, the preferential association of copper minerals with a hard matrix mineral (quartz) and a hard microwave-absorbent mineral (pyrite) resulted in a significant change in liberation behaviour. |
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| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-33545 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:19:37Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
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| spelling | nottingham-335452020-05-04T20:01:37Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33545/ Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment Batchelor, A.R. Jones, D.A. Plint, S. Kingman, S.W. In this paper, mineralogy, grain size, dissemination, textural consistency and mineral associations were determined for a commercially exploited porphyry copper ore using a Mineral Liberation Analyser (MLA). The ore was subjected to high power density microwave treatments in a single mode cavity at 15 kW and approximately 2 kW h/t. The untreated and microwave-treated samples were subsequently milled to two grind sizes near the nominal plant grind size and a size-by-liberation analysis performed. The analysis revealed that equivalent liberation could be obtained at a grind size approximately 50–60 μm coarser than the nominal plant grind due to the microwave treatment. Flotation testing indicated that an increase in copper recovery of approximately 1% could be achieved, or that a grind size increase of approximately 30 μm may potentially yield equivalent copper recovery due to the microwave-enhanced liberation observed. However, statistical analyses demonstrated that it is difficult to attain confidence in recovery increases of approximately 1% even when conducting batch flotation tests in triplicate. The ore under investigation had previously been shown to produce only modest average reductions in strength (∼8%) under similar microwave treatment conditions due to a prevalence of many unfavourable textures. However, the preferential association of copper minerals with a hard matrix mineral (quartz) and a hard microwave-absorbent mineral (pyrite) resulted in a significant change in liberation behaviour. Elsevier 2016-08 Article PeerReviewed Batchelor, A.R., Jones, D.A., Plint, S. and Kingman, S.W. (2016) Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment. Minerals Engineering, 94 . pp. 61-75. ISSN 0892-6875 Microwave; Ore; Mineralogy; Liberation; Flotation http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892687516301315 doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2016.05.011 doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2016.05.011 |
| spellingShingle | Microwave; Ore; Mineralogy; Liberation; Flotation Batchelor, A.R. Jones, D.A. Plint, S. Kingman, S.W. Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| title | Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| title_full | Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| title_fullStr | Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| title_short | Increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| title_sort | increasing the grind size for effective liberation and flotation of a porphyry copper ore by microwave treatment |
| topic | Microwave; Ore; Mineralogy; Liberation; Flotation |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33545/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33545/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33545/ |