THE EFFECT OF PULP POTENTIAL CONTROL ON THE METALLURGICAL PERFORMANCE OF A LEAD/COPPER BULK FLOTATION STAGE

摘要

This paper presents the metallurgical improvement obtained as a result of in plant tests. The tests were performed to study the selective flotation of the galena and chalcopyrite contained in a fine-grained complex ore of pyritic matrix, ground in a reducing environment and conditioned with a mixture of non-conventional collectors (i.e., different to xanthates) by increasing the pulp potential to around 0.3 V vs. SHE using hydrogen peroxide. The results showed the recovery (i.e., floatability) of galena and chalcopyrite presented a maximum at around 0.32 V and 0.27 V, respectively; compared to these minerals, the increase in recovery of accompanying sphalerite and pyrite was marginal.