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    A comparative study of electrochemical behavior of chalcopyrite, chalcocite and bornite in sulfuric acid solution
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    The aim of this study is to apply process mineralogy as a practical tool for further understanding and predicting the flotation kinetics of the copper sulfide minerals. The minerals’ composition and association, grain distribution, and liberation within the ore samples were analyzed in the feed, concentrate, and the tailings of the flotation processes with two pulp densities of 25wt% and 30wt%. The major copper-bearing minerals identified by microscopic analysis of the concentrate samples included chalcopyrite (56.2wt%), chalcocite (29.1wt%), covellite (6.4wt%), and bornite (4.7wt%). Pyrite was the main sulfide gangue mineral (3.6wt%) in the concentrates. A 95% degree of liberation with d80 > 80 µm was obtained for chalcopyrite as the main copper mineral in the ore sample. The recovery rate and the grade in the concentrates were enhanced with increasing chalcopyrite particle size. Chalcopyrite particles with a d80 of approximately 100 µm were recovered at the early stages of the flotation process. The kinetic studies showed that the kinetic second-order rectangular distribution model perfectly fit the flotation test data. Characterization of the kinetic parameters indicated that the optimum granulation distribution range for achieving a maximum flotation rate for chalcopyrite particles was between the sizes 50 and 55 µm.
    Covellite
    Chalcocite
    Bornite
    Gangue
    Sulfide Minerals
    Copper sulfide
    Copper extraction techniques
    Mineral processing
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    Electrochemical behaviors of chalcopyrite, covellite, chalcocite and bornite in 9K medium at 65 °C were compared in this paper to verify they whether or not the intermediate products of chalcopyrite. The results confirmed that bornite, chalcocite and covellite are the intermediate products of chalcopyrite. Chalcocite and bornite can both oxidize to covellite.
    Chalcocite
    Bornite
    Covellite
    Generally, the complex sulfide ores are mainly composed of chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite accompanied with many kinds of copper minerals such as chalcocite, covellite, bornite, tetrahedrites and enargite etc.In the separation process their flotation characteristics are different even among the copper minerals. It is very important to catch the flotation behaviours in order to recover the minerals effectively.Floatabilities of chalcopyrite, chalcocite and covellite are comparatively high under the condition of sulfite or sulfur dioxide flotation, however, tetrahedrites and bornite distinctly show low floatabilities. The latter are difficult to recover into copper concentrate for the floatabilities are similar to pyrite or sphalerite.Many flotation tests were conducted for a long time in our laboratory and then separation procedure of the copper minerals has successfully developed and consequently the copper recovery was remarkably increased.It was found that cyanides show an excellent effect in the separation system, some flotation performances and their conditions were described.
    Bornite
    Chalcocite
    Covellite
    Copper sulfide
    Sulfide Minerals
    Copper extraction techniques
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