TITLE:
The Effects of Water Recycling on Flotation at a North American Concentrator—Part 1
AUTHORS:
Antonio Di Feo, Saviz Mortazavi, Sean Langley, Lucie Morin, Gauri Prabhakar, André Demers, Ian Bedard, Konstantin Volchek
KEYWORDS:
Copper Recovery, Flotation, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Nickel Recovery, Process Water, Thickener Overflow, Water Recovery, Water Recycling
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering,
Vol.8 No.4,
July
23,
2020
ABSTRACT: Water chemistry and its impact on mineral processing
operations are not well understood and often not adequately monitored.
CanmetMINING, as part of its water management research program, has been
involved in a project initiated to identify opportunities for improving water
recovery, water treatment, and recycling in the mining and mineral processing
operations. One of the main objectives of this work is to evaluate and assess
water chemistry and identify factors that impact mineral recovery, concentrate
grade, and metal extraction efficiencies in order to understand and mitigate
negative impacts of water recycling and improve process efficiency. In
collaboration with a North American concentrator, CanmetMINING has been
involved in assessing the water chemistry in the mill and evaluating water
recycling options for select process streams to reduce fresh water intake and
maximize recycling. The overall goal of the project is to investigate options
for water recycling (increase the thickener overflow recirculation from
thickener overflow tank) without affecting nickel and copper metallurgy. The
results of the sampling campaigns showed that the water chemistry of the
streams was fairly consistent throughout the year with no significant seasonal
variations. The laboratory tests illustrated that when higher quantities of
thickener overflow from thickener overflow were used, the nickel + copper grade
versus nickel recovery curves shifted towards lower values. These observations
were observed for the plant water samples obtained in April, June and August
2019.