Recovery of Co, Ni, and Cu form the tailings of divrigi iron ore concentrator

摘要

In the Sivas-Divrigi Iron Ore Concentrator, 600,000 t of tailings are discarded annually. There are already 1 million t of tailings deposited in ponds from the previous production activities. The presence of Co, Ni, and Cu in the tailings makes the beneficiation of those tailings attractive. In the experimental work, sulphide concentrates were produced from these two types of tailings by flotation. Under optimum flotation conditions, a bulk sulphide concentrate assaying 0.376 percent Co, 0.721 percent Ni, and 0.403 percent Cu was obtained with 83.1 percent Co, 57.7 percent Ni, and 59.0 percent Cu recoveries from the old tailings. On the other hand, another concentrate containing 0.384 percent Co, 0.687 percent Ni, and 0.393 percent Cu was produced under the same flotation conditions with 94.7 percent Co, 84.6 percent Ni, and 76.8 percent Cu recoveries from the new process tailings.