Direct flotation and sulfide flotation of copper oxide

Copper oxide deposits are gradually evolved from shallow copper sulfide deposits under long-term oxidation. Copper oxide ores are of various types and complex properties, with typical characteristics of easy mudification, fine embedded particle size, and difficult separation. The main copper oxide ores with industrial utilization value in nature are malachite and azurite, in addition to chrysocolla and cuprite.

In the separation process of copper oxide ores, flotation is more environmentally friendly, low cost, simpler process, and is the most widely used beneficiation method. This method is suitable for the beneficiation of copper oxide ores with simple mineral composition and ore properties. According to the properties of copper oxide ores and the differences in the reagent system used, flotation methods can usually be divided into two categories: direct flotation and sulfide flotation.

Direct flotation of copper oxide

The characteristic of direct flotation is that no activator is added, and collectors are directly added to float copper minerals. This method can be divided into fatty acid flotation, amine flotation and emulsion flotation according to the difference in the properties of the collector used.

Sulfidation flotation of copper oxide

Compared with the direct flotation method, the most essential difference of the sulfidation flotation method is that the sulfiding agent is added before the collector to sulfidate the copper oxide mineral, so that the surface of the difficult-to-float copper oxide is sulfided to form a copper sulfide film layer with good floatability. In addition, the sulfidation flotation method solves the problem of poor collector selectivity.

It is extremely important to strictly control the amount of sulfiding agent in the sulfidation flotation process. During the flotation process, the hydrophobic copper sulfide film formed by the sulfiding agent on the surface of the copper oxide mineral can adsorb the collector, so that the copper oxide mineral can be flotated and recovered. The key to the sulfidation effect lies in the amount of sulfiding agent used.

Hydrothermal sulfidation flotation method

Hydrothermal sulfidation flotation method refers to a method in which SO2 or sulfur powder is used as an activator for copper oxide minerals under hot pressure conditions to sulfidate the difficult-to-float copper oxide minerals into easily-floating copper sulfide minerals, and then flotation is performed using conventional copper sulfide collectors.