Enhancement of Cu, Ni & Mo Recoveries in the bulk concentrate of Jaduguda uranium bearing ore

摘要

The Uranium ore treatment plant at Jaduguda, India, recovers copper, nickel and molybdenum as byproducts before the bulk flotation tailings are subjected to leaching to recover uranium values. The recoveries of these sulfide metals in this 900 TPD plant are reported to be around 60 percent Cu, 25 percent Ni and 55 percent Mo in the bulk concentrate. In this article, flotation studies carried out, at the instance of M/S UCIL, with various reagents and their combination to improve the over all recoveries are presented. It was observed that material coarser than 100 microns, from the flotation feed, could not be floated even in presence of excessive reagent unless it is ground further. It was established that around 95 percent Cu, 75 percent Ni and 74 percent Mo values could be recovered by using either amyl xanthate or mixture of amyl xanthate and Aero Promoter 194 in place of cresylic acid that is being currently used as collector in the plant.