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Article history: In the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), effluents from flotation of oxidised
Received 6 June 2013 ores of copper and cobalt are stored in settling ponds in view separation of tailings and the mill
Received in revised form 2 August 2013 wastewaters, which are sent in the rivers. Tailings consist of the gangue minerals accompanied by the
Accepted 17 August 2013
uncovered metals of interest. In some cases, tailings may contain copper and cobalt to concentrations
that can be economically recovered. The present research aims at recovering copper and cobalt through
Keywords: reprocessing of tailings from flotation of oxidised ores of copper and cobalt achieved at the Kambove
Tailings reprocessing
Concentrator (DRC). It focuses on the determination of the reagents’ dosage that enables obtaining the
Flotation
highest recovery of copper (44.80%) and cobalt (88.30%) through flotation of the studied tailings. Based
Metals recovery
Resources conservation on both the achievable recovery of the metals of interest and the concentrate grade (3.31% Cu and 2.22%
Environment safeguard Co), it was concluded that the reprocessing of tailings from the Kambove Concentrator through flotation
appears to be an attractive practice because it could enable minimising the footprint of the mineral
processing industry on the environment. It could also contribute to the resources conservation through
the recovery of metals from the minerallurgical processes wastes.
ß 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2213-3437/$ – see front matter ß 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2013.08.025
1086 M.S. Lutandula, B. Maloba / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 1085–1090
production, storage and disposal of solid wastes from the copper 2X þ MS ! MX2 þ S þ 2e (4)
industry in view improvement of practices in their management.
Kitobo [17] has suggested a method enabling deactivation of O2 þ 2H2 O þ 4e Ð 4OH (5)
tailings through the removal of sulphur and the recovery of copper
As the matter of fact, xanthate ions (X ) liberated in solution
and zinc as economic by-products in view minimisation of their
by thiol collectors adsorb, via chimisorption or an electrochem-
environmental footprint. Moreover, according to the D.R. Congo
ical process, on the activated minerals surfaces in the form of
mining code published in 2002, residues from minerallurgical and
hydrophobic species (adsorbed xanthate Xads, dixanthogena X2
metallurgical processes along with wastes generated by mining
and the metal xanthate MX2). These species enable the
operations belong to a special category of mineral resources
attachment of the mineral particles to air bubbles within the
considering their contents in the economically recoverable base
agitated pulp submitted to flotation [23,28]. At Kambove,
metals of interest namely copper, cobalt and zinc [16,18]. They are
potassium amylxanthate (KAX)-10%, which is a thiol, is used
assimilated to low-grade ores due to their huge amounts [6]. In the
as the primary collector (0.30–0.35 kg/t) to float malachite and
Katanga province, the growing interest towards wastes from
heterogenite as the main bearing minerals of copper and cobalt
minerallurgical and metallurgical processes is noticeable through
in the ores. The flotation circuit enables to produce a
the reuse of tailings from the Kulumaziba pond in view to produce
concentrate grading 10–14% in copper. Built between 1963
copper and cobalt by means of the gravity separation process. The
and 1964, the Kambove Concentrator was designed to handle
change in attitude towards wastes from industrials processes is
and treat monthly 125,000 tons of oxidised ores of copper and
also materialised by the smelting of slag practiced since 2002 at
cobalt from the deposits of Kamfundwa, the South and central
the ‘‘Big Hill Smelter in Lubumbashi’’ with the aim to produce
Kamoya and Kamwale [16]. The run-of-mine ore undergoes the
copper and cobalt alloys [19–21]. The present research work aims
primary and secondary crushing followed by a series of re-
at recovering copper and cobalt through flotation of tailings from
crushing and screening stages to ensure that the desired degree
the beneficiation of oxidised ores achieved at the Kambove
of fragmentation is attained in view liberation of the valuable
Concentrator. It is an attempt oriented towards the lowering of the
minerals from the gangue. The comminuted ore is conditioned
mineral processing industry footprint on the environment
with sodium silicate inside a rod mill working in closed circuit
through the reprocessing of tailings from the beneficiation of
with hydrocyclones that deliver their overflow to the talc
oxidised ores of copper and cobalt [17]. As the matter of fact, it is
removal section and afterward, to the primary roughing
expected that the reprocessing of tailings can enable minimising
flotation circuit. The valuable minerals retained in tailings are
the release of pollutants to watercourses and soils. It can also give
recovered, as a low-grade copper concentrate, through repro-
a boost to the conservation of resources practices since it enables
cessing of tails from the rougher section using a flotation circuit
the recovery of the metals of value from wastes generated by
comprising the secondary roughing and scavenging, cleaning
minerallurgical processes.
and re-cleaning. The obtained concentrate is returned back to
the primary rougher section. However, it is worth mentioning
Material and methods
that the Kambove Concentrator throughput is presently halved
due to aging of the facilities that require a refurbishment
Flotation process and the effluents management at the Kambove
[15,19]. Concerning the mill effluents, they were stored at the
Concentrator
Kabambakola sites before the collapse of the tailings pond’s
wall, which occurred in 1992. One finds at Kabambakola about
The Kambove Concentrator uses a ‘‘Hybrid’’ flotation process
36 Mt of tailings (0.89% Cu and 0.19% Co) from the Kambove
which is based on the particular reagents regime where the
Concentrator [14]. At present, effluents with low contents in
sulphidiser (3.0–3.5 g/t NaSH-36%) is partially replaced by a
solids (Fig. 1) liberated by the concentrate thickeners and the
mixture (0.15 kg/t) of gasoil (90%) and synthetic fatty acids
filter-press are temporarily stored in an open ditch named ‘‘617’’
(10%) named Rinkalore 10. This mixture plays the role of the
[16].
secondary collector and enables obtaining a concentrate
As for those loaded in solids discharged by the flotation
assaying about 11% in copper. Flotation is a process to separate
machines and consisting of the pulps impoverished in minerals of
valuable minerals from the gangue based on differences in
interest, they are added to mine waters from the Musesa open pit
surface properties of the particles after milling of metallic ores
before being pumped to the mill spillway in view retention of
[22]. Oxidised minerals found in ores processed at Kambove are
tailings and clarification of the mill wastewaters that continue
hydrophilic and do not float well using thiol collectors such as
their course until in the Kambakola River.
xanthates traditionally destined for sulphide minerals [23–25].
That is why, they undergo sulphidisation by means of NaSH as
shown by the reaction (1): Tailings separation and chemical analysis
2 þ
MOðsÞ þ S ðaqÞ þ 2H ðaqÞ Ð MSðsÞ þ H2 O (1) Effluents of our interest were sampled at the Kambove
Sulphidisation of oxidised minerals of copper and cobalt is Concentrator discharge point (S1) as well as at two separated
achieved through the above chemical reaction that enables their points (S2 and S3) located far away along the area drain leading to
activation or the formation of a metal sulphide or elementary the mill process waters spillway (Fig. 2).
sulphur on their surfaces [23,26,27] for rendering them Tailings of our focus were recovered from effluents after their
amenable to flotation using the collecting properties of thiol. settling in view to separate out the mill wastewaters. The chemical
Xanthates are made of heteropolar molecules analysis of tailings was achieved through dissolution (15 min) of a
ðROCS þ þ
or X Mþ ; where M is Naþ or Kþ Þ that re- representative sample (1 g) using a leaching liquor consisting of
2M
act with the activated minerals surfaces based on the chemical 10 mL of nitric acid (65% w/w) and 2 mL of hydrogen peroxide
reactions below: (100% w/w), dilution (1:10) and spectrophotometric measure-
ments of copper, cobalt, iron, cadmium, nickel and lead using an
X ! Sads þ e (2) Analytkjena AA300 device. The same analytical procedure has
enabled determining the contents in copper and cobalt in the
2X ! X2 þ 2e (3) concentrate and the reprocessed tailings.
[(Fig._1)TD$IG] M.S. Lutandula, B. Maloba / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 1085–1090 1087
Particles size analysis introduced in the slurry to be floated while keeping constant (0.1)
the ratio of dosages. The individual dosages of the reagents were
A sample (300 g) of the studied tailings was sieved using a varied between 0.6 and 0.7 kg/ton for the sulphidising reagent
Retsch vibrating device (from 400 to +48 meshes). The sieved (NaSH-36%) and 6 and 7 kg/ton for the primary collector
matters were dewatered through heating at 105 8C in a Memmert respectively (KAX-10%).
steam room, weighted using a Mettler Toledo SB 1600 analytic During the reprocessing of tailings, a mixture (0.15 kg/t)
balance and afterwards, spectrophotometrically assayed for consisting of gasoil (90%) and tall oil (10%) was utilised as the
copper and cobalt. secondary collector. The pulp to be floated (pH 8.49) was prepared
using 1 kg of tailings and tap water and the specific weight was
Recovery of copper and cobalt through flotation of tailings adjusted around 1300 g/L. The ore was conditioned with 0.25 kg/t
of sodium silicate (30%) and 0.05 kg/t of sodium carbonate (30%)
The roughing flotation of tailings was achieved at laboratory were introduced in the pulp respectively as the slimes depressor/
(14 min) using a Denver D-12 mechanical machine with the dispersant and pH modifier. Tailings were floated using the
impeller speed kept at 1350 rpm (Fig. 3). The yields in copper and industrial-graded reagents as in the beneficiation of oxidised ores
cobalt were studied versus the reagents dosage. The reagents were of copper achieved at the Kambove Concentrator.
[(Fig._2)TD$IG]
Results and discussions
2 minutes
2 minutes 2 minutes 4 minutes 4 minutes
TR T
C1 C2 C3 C4
Fig. 2. Sampling of effluents from flotation and recovery of tailings. Fig. 3. Flotation of tailings recovered from the Kambove Concentrator’s effluents.
1088 [(Fig._4)TD$IG]
M.S. Lutandula, B. Maloba / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 1085–1090
Table 1
Chemical composition of tailings from the Kambove Concentrator.
S1, tailings recovered from effluents sampled at the concentrator discharge point;
S2, tailings from effluents sampled in the area drain at 500 m far away; and S3,
tailings from effluents sampled in the area at 2000 m far away from. Italic variables
simply signify the contents in the metals of interest in the initial and the
reprocessed tailings.
Particles size distribution in tailings Flotation of tailings was achieved while varying the reagents
dosage as show in Table 3.
The size distribution of particles in the studied tailings is given The obtained results reveal that the recovery of copper and
in Table 2. cobalt depends on the reagents dosage (Fig. 4). Indeed, the increase
As can be seen from Table 2, about 63% of particles consist of in the reagents dosage of 17% results in significant drops in the
slimes (400 meshes) with the highest contents in the metals of recovery of copper (18%) and cobalt (31%) during the roughing
Table 2
Size distribution of particles in tailings.
+48 1.76 0.59 1.76 1.24 0.02 0.02 0.71 0.01 0.01
+68 2.83 0.95 4.59 0.75 0.02 0.04 0.61 0.02 0.03
+100 5.59 1.87 10.18 0.60 0.03 0.07 0.53 0.03 0.06
+150 11.77 3.94 21.95 0.61 0.07 0.14 0.49 0.06 0.12
+200 25.74 8.62 47.69 0.54 0.14 0.28 0.44 0.11 0.23
+270 28.19 9.44 75.88 0.61 0.17 0.45 0.44 0.12 0.35
+325 14.20 4.75 90.08 0.64 0.09 0.54 0.44 0.06 0.41
+400 20.02 6.70 110.10 0.89 0.18 0.72 0.49 0.10 0.51
400 (slimes) 188.64 63.15 298.74 1.47 2.77 3.49 0.85 1.60 2.11
Total 298.74 100 1.17 3.49 0.71 2.11
W, weight in grams; Wp, proportion in percents; CW, cumulated weight in grams; CW1, cumulated weight in grams for copper; CW2, cumulated weight in grams for cobalt.
Table 3
Concentrates grades and recoveries in copper and in cobalt versus the reagents dosage.
Copper (%) Cobalt (%) Copper (%) Cobalt (%) Copper (%) Cobalt (%)
W G R G R W G R G R W G R G R
Tlc 45.5 1.8 4.8 0.6 4.1 51.7 1.2 3.7 0.6 4.8 42.1 1.2 2.9 0.4 2.8
C1 42.1 3.2 7.9 1.6 11.1 41.7 4.4 10.8 3.6 24.3 22.9 1.2 2.6 0.5 1.9
C2 41.4 2.7 6.5 1.5 10.2 26.2 5.2 8.1 4.3 18.5 22.3 13.5 17.6 8.3 30.4
C3 120.0 4.1 29.3 3.0 59.3 16.3 5.0 4.8 4.1 10.9 9.1 4.9 2.7 4.0 5.9
C4 25.1 0.8 1.1 0.7 2.8 14.7 3.3 2.4 2.7 6.5 22.3 2.3 3.0 3.8 13.9
RC 229.0 3.3 44 .8 2.2 83.3 98.9 4.6 26.7 3.7 60.1 76.6 5.5 24.9 4.2 52.1
W, weight in grams; G, grade of copper (cobalt) in the concentrate, R, recovery of copper (cobalt); Tlc, Talc; RC, roughing concentrate.
[(Fig._5)TD$IG] [(Fig._7)TD$IG]
M.S. Lutandula, B. Maloba / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 1085–1090 1089
240
80
Concentrate mass pull (g)
160
40
120
20
KAX/NaSH : 0.60/6.0
80 KAX/NaSH : 0.65/6.5
KAX/NaSH : 0.70/7.0
0
0.61/6.0 0.65/6.5 0.70/7.0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
KAX/NaSH weight's ratio Time (minutes)
Fig. 5. Selectivity of copper and cobalt versus the reagents dosage. Fig. 7. Recovery of cobalt versus time and the reagents dosage.
40 Conclusion
Recovery of copper (%)
areas where concentrators are operating. However, it is worth Colorado School of Mines engineers and selected for the benefit of Mining
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Acknowledgements Environmental Impacts, A report of a scientific cooperation project 2005 No.
6312PS508 achieved by the University Of Lubumbashi (UNILU), the University of
Liege (ULg) and the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (INPL) funded by the
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