Investigation of effective parameters for molybdenite recovery from porphyry copper ores in industrial flotation circuit

The Sarcheshmeh copper mine is a significant copper and molybdenum producer. Sampling of the Sarcheshmeh flotation circuit (in a six-month period) showed that a large share of waste of molybdenite took place in rougher cells. Since the rougher cells tailing is transferred to tailing thickener, the main focus of this paper was on this section. In the current study, the factors which influence the recovery of molybdenite and copper were investigated. Molybdenite recovery in the bulk flotation circuit was consistently lower than that of the copper sulphides as well as being far more variable. This paper describes the methodically use of size by size recovery data, quantitative mineralogy, and liberation degree analysis to identify the factors contributing to molybdenite recovery relative to copper in industrial rougher circuit. The results showed that the size by size recovery for both metals in the ultrafine and coarse fractions recovery was reduced. On the other hand, the highest recovery occurred in the intermediate sizes from 27 μm to 55 μm. Molybdenum recovery in the fine and ultrafine and coarse fractions drops off to a greater extent than the recovery of copper. The investigations of degree liberation showed that the recovery of copper sulphides is more dependent on the liberation state of valuable minerals while for molybdenite some other factor splay a significant role.