In 2017 an agreement was settled within Cupru Min, the Romanian state mining company, and Proquimin, a Chilean supplier company of mining chemicals, to evaluate mining reagent formulations in Chile to improve the metallurgical performance of two different ores currently being processed in the Cupru Min concentrator plant in Romania. A low and a high pyrite content ore were selected for testing. The main issue related to high pyrite ores is low copper recovery, which forced the development of a mining plan to avoid the extraction, and the subsequent treatment of this ore.An evaluation of different chemical reagents at rougher flotation level was carried out to determine which provide the highest copper recoveries. Tests were performed with different operational parameters, testing the new chemistries with coarser granulometry and lower pH level to evaluate copper recovery and copper grade. A report was submitted to Cupru Min with favorable metallurgical results for both ores studied, with more efficient formulations of collectors and frothers. The primary result is the increase in copper recovery from the high pyrite ore from 67 % to 77 %. This would allow an ore extraction plan that includes the high pyrite ore. Copper recovery from low pyrite ore was also improved from 78 % to 84 %. Both results consider the plant?s standard flotation and the same granulometry and pH level. Furthermore, copper recovery results with coarser granulometry also achieved better results than standard, going from 67 % to 76 % for high pyrite ore and from 78 % to 81 % for low pyrite ore. This would optimize production because it would allow processing the same amount of ore using less energy and with lower steel consumption, or increase ore treatment from 7,000 tons to 11,000 tons per day using the same energy and steel resources in milling and flotation plants. Finally, an economical evaluation was developed.
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