Effect of mineralogy on the selective flotation of enargite

Arsenic (As) is highly toxic inorganic pollutant, which causes human health and environmental problems. Enargite is a copper-arsenic bearing mineral with surface properties that bear strong similarities to common copper minerals. Recent research by CSIRO demonstrated promising results showing that it is possible to separate copper arsenic sulphides from copper sulphides using controlled potential flotation at laboratory scale with model mineral systems. However, the selective removal of copper arsenic minerals in real ore systems is less well understood, particularly, the effects of mineralogical properties such as liberation and mineralogical association. This study seeks to investigate selective separation of copper-arsenic minerals from a copper sulphide ore in a batch flotation system under controlled pulp potential. This Part I paper summarizes the current state of knowledge related to enargite separation. It then describes the results of the mineralogical characterization of the ore samples, the experimental method, and the initial results.