The effects of water recycling on nickel-copper ore at a North American concentrator

Di Feoa, Volcheka, Morina, Demersa, Mortazavia

Published in Proceedings of the IMPC2020 Congress, SAIMM

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper was to investigate the possibility of reducing process (fresh) water and increasing recycled water (thickener tank overflow water). As part of the investigation, rougher flotation tests were done with the two water types and a mixture of the two (50%/50%).

The effect of recycled water on the grade-recovery response and rougher recoveries was investigated. When thickener tank overflow was used (50% and 100%), the nickel+copper grade versus nickel recovery decreased. The decrease in the grade-recovery was due to higher pyrrhotite recovery. Also, there were no effects on nickel and copper recoveries, which was confirmed using multivariate statistical analysis at the 95% significance level.

Keywords

Flotation, nickel, copper, water recycling, multivariate statistical analysis, MANOVA, reverse osmosis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Sylvain Dillon and Joshua Thomas for their hard and excellent work in the laboratory.

AUTHORS

A. Di Feoa*, K. Volcheka, L. Morina, A. Demersa,andS. Mortazavia

aNatural Resources Canada, CanmetMINING, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0G1

*Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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