<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Copper is widely used in the modern world. An excellent conductor of electricity, it is used in the electrical industry, in the construction industry because of its good corrosion resistance, and in the manufacture of heat exchangers in heating and cooling systems owing to its excellent thermal conductivity. Copper production has increased throughout the twentieth century, and this trend has continued over the last twenty years. The demand for copper is expected to increase significantly by the year 2030. Owing to the high prices of this metal and the lack of deposits, part of the demand can be met by extraction from copper-bearing tailings. In the past, owing to the lower level of technological development and lower copper prices, materials comparable in copper content to the copper ores mined today have ended up in tailings. Since these are already processed materials, the costs of mining, crushing and milling are largely eliminated, making them promising raw materials. The article presents the technological possibilities of reprocessing and also estimates the amount of copper that could be obtained worldwide in this way.</p>
</abstract>

Copper is widely used in the modern world. An excellent conductor of electricity, it is used in the electrical industry, in the construction industry because of its good corrosion resistance, and in the manufacture of heat exchangers in heating and cooling systems owing to its excellent thermal conductivity. Copper production has increased throughout the twentieth century, and this trend has continued over the last twenty years. The demand for copper is expected to increase significantly by the year 2030. Owing to the high prices of this metal and the lack of deposits, part of the demand can be met by extraction from copper-bearing tailings. In the past, owing to the lower level of technological development and lower copper prices, materials comparable in copper content to the copper ores mined today have ended up in tailings. Since these are already processed materials, the costs of mining, crushing and milling are largely eliminated, making them promising raw materials. The article presents the technological possibilities of reprocessing and also estimates the amount of copper that could be obtained worldwide in this way.

Copper tailings reprocessing

Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department of Geotechnology, Mining and Environment

Materials and Geoenvironment

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Pridobivanje bakra z deponij

Copper is widely used in the modern world. An excellent conductor of electricity, it is used in the electrical industry, in the construction industry because...

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

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

Copper tailings reprocessing

Article Category: Original Scientific Article

Publié en ligne: 06 août 2023

Pages: 7 - 16

Reçu: 22 juin 2021

Accepté: 02 juil. 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rmzmag-2021-0002

Mots clés
tailings reprocessing, multi-gravity separator, flotation, copper

© 2021 Damjan Hann, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1:

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Figure 5:

Figure 6:

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

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

Results of sieve test.

Copper tailings reprocessing

Article Category: Original Scientific Article

Publié en ligne: 06 août 2023

Pages: 7 - 16

Reçu: 22 juin 2021

Accepté: 02 juil. 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rmzmag-2021-0002

Mots cléstailings reprocessing, multi-gravity separator, flotation, copper

© 2021 Damjan Hann, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

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

Results of sieve test.

Mots clés
tailings reprocessing, multi-gravity separator, flotation, copper