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Copper tailings reprocessing

Damjan Hann

Damjan Hann

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department of Geotechnology, Mining and EnvironmentLjubljana, Slovenia
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Hann, Damjan
  
Aug 06, 2023
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Article Category: Original Scientific Article
Published Online: Aug 06, 2023
Page range: 7 - 16
Received: Jun 22, 2021
Accepted: Jul 02, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rmzmag-2021-0002
Keywords
© 2021 Damjan Hann, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1:

Copper price on the London Metal Exchange since April 2020 (USD/t) [4].
Copper price on the London Metal Exchange since April 2020 (USD/t) [4].

Figure 2:

Total copper mine production worldwide from 1900 to 2020 (adapted from [5, 6]).
Total copper mine production worldwide from 1900 to 2020 (adapted from [5, 6]).

Figure 3:

Graphical interpretation of the sieve test.
Graphical interpretation of the sieve test.

Figure 4:

Multi-gravity separator – MGS (adapted from [10, 14, 18]).
Multi-gravity separator – MGS (adapted from [10, 14, 18]).

Figure 5:

Cumulative size distribution of feed material from a copper tailings reprocessing plant (adapted from [7]).
Cumulative size distribution of feed material from a copper tailings reprocessing plant (adapted from [7]).

Figure 6:

Process line for copper tailings reprocessing.
Process line for copper tailings reprocessing.

Figure 1:

Copper price on the London Metal Exchange since April 2020 (USD/t) [4].
Copper price on the London Metal Exchange since April 2020 (USD/t) [4].

Figure 2:

Total copper mine production worldwide from 1900 to 2020 (adapted from [5, 6]).
Total copper mine production worldwide from 1900 to 2020 (adapted from [5, 6]).

Figure 3:

Graphical interpretation of the sieve test.
Graphical interpretation of the sieve test.

Figure 4:

Multi-gravity separator – MGS (adapted from [10, 14, 18]).
Multi-gravity separator – MGS (adapted from [10, 14, 18]).

Figure 5:

Cumulative size distribution of feed material from a copper tailings reprocessing plant (adapted from [7]).
Cumulative size distribution of feed material from a copper tailings reprocessing plant (adapted from [7]).

Figure 6:

Process line for copper tailings reprocessing.
Process line for copper tailings reprocessing.

Approximate relative costs of a 100,000 t/day copper concentrator [10]_

Item Cost (%)
Crushing 2.8
Grinding 47.0
Flotation 16.2
Thickening 3.5
Filtration 2.8
Tailings 5.1
Reagents 0.5
Pipeline 1.4
Water 8.0
Laboratory 1.5
Maintenance support 0.8
Management support 1.6
Administration 0.6
Other expenses 8.1
Total 100

Results of sieve test_

Aperture size (μm) Size interval (μm) Sieve mass (g) Cumulative pass (g) Cumulative pass (%) Cumulative oversize (%)
2,000 +2,000 13 2.81 97.19 2.81
1,000 1,000–2,000 4 0.86 96.33 3.67
500 500–1,000 11 2.38 93.95 6.05
250 250–500 143 30.89 63.06 36.94
125 125–250 193 41.68 21.38 78.62
71 71–125 54 11.66 9.72 90.28
32 32–71 24 5.18 4.54 95.46
0 0–32 21 4.54 0.00 100.00
Language:
English
Publication timeframe:
4 times per year
Journal Subjects:
Computer Sciences, Databases and Data Mining, Geosciences, Geodesy, Geology and Mineralogy, Materials Sciences, Materials Characterization and Properties
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