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Chalcopyrite and Pyrite Floatabilities in the Presence of Sodium Sulphide and

Sodium Metabisulfite in a High Pyritic Copper Complex Ore

Article  in  Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology · December 2017

DOI: 10.1080/01932691.2016.1194763

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ISSN: 0193-2691 (Print) 1532-2351 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ldis20

Chalcopyrite and pyrite floatabilities in the

presence of sodium sulfide and sodium
metabisulfite in a high pyritic copper complex ore

Ahmad Hassanzadeh & Mohammad Hasanzadeh

To cite this article: Ahmad Hassanzadeh & Mohammad Hasanzadeh (2017) Chalcopyrite
and pyrite floatabilities in the presence of sodium sulfide and sodium metabisulfite in a high
pyritic copper complex ore, Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology, 38:6, 782-788, DOI:
10.1080/01932691.2016.1194763

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JOURNAL OF DISPERSION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2017, VOL. 38, NO. 6, 782–788
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2016.1194763

Chalcopyrite and pyrite floatabilities in the presence of sodium sulfide and sodium
metabisulfite in a high pyritic copper complex ore
Ahmad Hassanzadeha and Mohammad Hasanzadehb
a
Mineral Processing Engineering Department, Faculty of Mines, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey; bDrug Applied Research
Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

One of the principal problems in flotation of copper complex ores is the presence of pyrite and copper- Received 11 May 2016
activated pyrite in moderately alkaline pHs. Misreported pyrite into copper concentrates dramatically Accepted 24 May 2016
declines copper grade and its recovery. In this study, the effect of sodium sulfide, sodium metabisulfite KEYWORDS
(SMBS), and their dosages (100, 200, 300, and 400 g/t) were investigated on chalcopyrite and pyrite Chalcopyrite; froth flotation;
floatabilities in a high pyritic copper sulfide ore. Furthermore, the role of particle size distribution (PSD) in pyrite; SMBS; sodium sulfide
three different levels (i.e., d70, d75, and d80 of passing 75 µm) was evaluated by a series of batch flotation
experiments. It was revealed that using 200 g/t SMBS provides not only the highest and the lowest
chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries, but also the maximum and minimum copper and iron grades. Pyrite
recovery was sharply increased by the addition of sodium sulfide in light of sodium sulfide-induced
collectorless flotation; however, it showed a very weak effect on chalcopyrite floatability. In addition, the
highest and lowest chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries were, respectively, identified when d75 equaled to
70% 75 µm. In other words, for the high pyritic copper ore type, it is feasible to achieve the highest
chalcopyrite recovery consuming the lowest grinding energy.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Introduction chalcopyrite and pyrite can also be problematic in the flotation

process due to inadvertent activation of pyrite by dissolved
In copper sulfide ores, pyrite is the most common mineral
copper ions from copper sulfides through superficial oxidation,
that is associated with valuable copper minerals such as
and/or their association with pyrite as fine complex inter-
chalcopyrite, covellite, and chalcocite. It has a significant effect
growths.[2] Copper activation of pyrite is mainly responsible
on the copper flotation due to its devastating effect on the
for the high flotation of this mineral in alkaline pH conditions.
quality of product and efficiency of process. Basically, in
While its depression is strongly attributed to the greater pro-
flotation of the ores, a high pH value is used to separate
portion of surface oxidation of pyrite which prohibit collector
precious copper minerals from pyrite or pyrrhotite with
adsorption and reduce stability of collector.[3] In practical
xanthate collectors.[1] However, effective selectivity between

CONTACT Ahmad Hassanzadeh Hassanzadeh@itu.edu.tr Mineral Processing Engineering Department, Faculty of Mines, Istanbul Technical University,
Maslak, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/ldis.
© 2017 Taylor & Francis

manner, this process will also be more complicated if the flo-
tation feed comes from a pyritic copper ore. Nowadays, as a
consequence of changing the ore type and increasing pyrite’s
contribution within the ores, copper grade and its recovery
decline significantly. Therefore, the efficient and selective sep-
aration of pyrite from copper sulfide minerals during the flo-
tation process is important for a number of reasons.[4]
It is now generally accepted that dixanthogen is the main xan-
thate species responsible for pyrite flotation, although ferric xan-
thate is also assumed to be formed on the pyrite surface and
induces its flotation. Various methods have been introduced to
decrease pyrite flotation by preventing copper activation ore, if
it has already occurred, by addition of hydrophilic depressants.
One of the very important characteristics of pyrite flotation is
that in alkaline pH values, pyrite can be well depressed and in
acidic pHs, the floatability of pyrite improves significantly.
Indeed, in an alkaline pH, secondary depressants, such as organic
compounds, sulfates, and cyanide, are quite effective. Successful
pyrite depression is highly dependent on the ability of the pyrite
to be oxidized quickly. As a result of this oxidation, the iron
hydroxide, Fe(OH)3, can be formed on the surface of the pyrite,
which increases hydration of the minerals and reduces adsorp-
tion of the collector.[5] In addition, selection of the suitable type
and adequate dosage of the reagents is one of the important
factors with regard to flotation and depression of pyrite.
Sodium sulfite and sodium metabisulfite (SMBS) at high
concentration are effective depressants of iron sulfide miner-
als. In an investigation, Boulton et al. indicated that polyacry-
lamide polymers containing various functional groups can
depress iron sulfide minerals.[6] It is also shown that pH values
greater than 11 are essential to extensively depress pyrite in the
presence of xanthate collectors. Bulut et al. studied the role of
metabisulphite and starch on pyrite depression in pure pyrite
and a pyritic copper ore. Selected pH values for pure pyrite
was considered 6.5 and 10 for pure pyrite, while it was 7
and 12 in the case of pyritic copper ore.[7] They reported that
using starch was more effective for higher pH ranges while
pyrite was extremely depressed by metabisulphite in lower
pH values. Gul studied the effect of SMBS and activated car-
bon on the selective flotation of chalcopyrite from pyrite in
industrial condition in Kure copper concentrator.[8] It was
concluded that the conditioning time plays a significant role
on flotation selectivity and reduces the consumption dosage
of SBMS. It was also presented that copper concentration
can be increased from 17.5% to 28% by means of combined
SMBS and activated carbon. A research was carried out with
the purpose of determining the effectiveness of SMBS on
pyrite depression in Siirt Madenköy copper mine in Turkey.
In this study, SMBS dosage was enhanced from 1000 g/t to
5000 g/t and the maximum copper grade was obtained at
3000 g/t. Nevertheless, adding 4000 g/t SMBS caused decreas-
ing copper grade and in turn it enhanced the pyrite grade.[9]
Liu et al. applied an organic pyrite depressant called lignosul-
fonate calcium (LSC).[10] They pointed out that the LSC has a
very good depression effect on pyrite, through the whole pH
ranges in the presence of butyl xanthate as collector, whereas
it showed little influence on chalcopyrite flotation disclosing a
satisfied separation efficiency of chalcopyrite from pyrite.
Depression of pyrite using sodium glycerine-xanthate (SGX)
JOURNAL OF DISPERSION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 783
was studied on marmatite [(Zn, Fe)S] flotation. It was indicated
that, in the presence of SGX, marmatite can be activated by Cu2þ
ions that leads to its floatability. Substantially low concentration
of SGX represented no influence on adsorption density.[11]
Another investigation concentrated on either individual use of
sodium cyanide (NaCN) and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans or
the use of a combination of them as pyrite depressants in low-
grade lead–zinc ore. It was stated that the effectiveness of NaCN
and A. ferrooxidans is relatively same. Therefore, they suggested
using A. ferrooxidans rather than NaCN due to its nontoxic
and environment-friendly nature.[12] Chitosan as a natural
biodegradable polymer was used in order to depress pyrite in
copper–molybdenum sulfide flotation. Adsorption density
measurement of xanthate and chitosan on chalcopyrite and mol-
ybdenite revealed that the adsorption density of chitosan on
chalcopyrite was higher than that on molybdenite.[13] Li et al.
studied adsorption mechanism of OH and CaOHþ ions on
pyrite surfaces in terms of using CaO and NaOH as pyrite
depressants.[14] A comparison between the adsorption energies
of OH and CaOHþ on the pyrite surface indicated that the
adsorption of CaOHþ was stronger than that of OH .
Despite many researchers have investigated the effect of
pyrite on copper flotation, still its role in high pyritic copper
ore is highly required to be studied with regard to increasing
the proportion of pyrite in copper sulfide ores. The purpose
of this study is to evaluate the effects of using SMBS as an effec-
tive pyrite depressant and sodium sulfide on flotation of a high
pyritic copper complex ore. An optimization on the consump-
tion dosage of the depressant and NaS2 as well as the feed
particle size distribution (PSD) are taken into account to deter-
mine the pyrite and chalcopyrite floatability characterizations.
Materials and methods
Materials, reagents, and preparation
In this study, the required high pyritic copper samples were
obtained from a copper complex sulfide ore. The samples were
prepared after two stages of laboratory comminution including
crushing and milling. First, the samples were crushed in a jaw
crusher. Following this, a laboratory standard ball mill was used
on 1460 g of representative samples under different grinding
time values, in order to individually achieve 70, 75, and 80%
passing 75 µm. Thereafter, the samples were homogenized and
sealed in polyethylene bags in order to avoid their oxidation.
One of the representative samples was chemically analyzed,
and its chemical composition is presented in Table 1. According
to the Table 1, it can be seen that the sulfide minerals such as
chalcopyrite, chalcocite, and pyrite are the main detected
minerals. Furthermore, gangue minerals including quartz, illite,
biotite, chlorite, orthoclase, albeit and muscovite were identified
in the studied sample. Figure 1 presents the mineralogical
analysis of the representative sample. Microscopic analysis
shows that the main copper mineral is chalcopyrite that is finely
disseminated in the texture of the ore.
Table 1. Chemical analysis of the studied representative feed sample.
Component Cu Fe CuO CuS Mo
Grade (%) 0.73 6.03 0.06 0.67 0.022
784 A. HASSANZADEH AND M. HASANZADEH

Table 2 Experimental conditions for the flotation tests.

Run d80 Z11 C-4132 F7240 F742 P.O SMBS Na2S
# (µm) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t)
1 70 15 0 25 15 15 0 0
2 70 0 40 0 20 20 0 0
3 70 10 5 15 20 15 0 0
4 70 0 40 0 15 15 100 0
5 70 0 40 0 15 15 200 0
6 70 0 40 0 15 15 300 0
7 70 0 40 0 15 15 400 0
9 70 15 0 25 15 15 0 100
10 70 15 0 25 15 15 0 200
11 70 15 0 25 15 15 0 300
12 70 15 0 25 15 15 0 400
13 75 0 40 0 15 15 200 0
14 80 0 40 0 15 15 200 0

It should be noted that, according to the experimental design

Figure 1. Photomicrograph of polished section of feed sample in high pyritic
copper ore.
Lime (Ca(OH)2) was used as pH regulator to maintain the
pH at the targeted value during the grinding and flotation
processes. Isopropyl ethyl thionocarbamate (flomin C-4132),
mixture of mercaptobenzothiazole and dithiophosphate
(F7240), and sodium isopropyl xanthate (Z11) were used as
collectors, and methyl isobutyl carbonyl (MIBC), poly-
propylene glycol (F742), and pine oil (PO) were applied as
frothers. In addition SMBS and sodium sulfide in different
dosages were taken into consideration in flotation examines.
method, after evaluating the role of SMBS and sodium sulfide
and consequently optimizing of their dosages, the influence of
feed fraction size was examined considering the experimental
conditions of test runs 13 and 14. In addition, it was previously
reported that changing the amount of collector, has intensive
variation on kinetics constant of chalcopyrite in flotation of
copper complex ore. In fact, maximum flotation kinetics rate
can be normally obtained using 40g/t and 30g/t collector
and frother dosages, respectively.[15] Therefore, in the present
study, the consumption dosage of reagents were kept constant
as 40 g/t and 30 g/t for collector and frother, respectively.[16]

Result and discussion

Flotation experiments
Flotation tests were conducted using a Denver flotation
machine at the impeller speed of 1400 rpm. The pulp density
was adjusted to 28% solid at the beginning of each experiment.
The slurry pH was set at 11.8 with the purpose of adjusting
flotation prerequisite condition along with depressing pyrite.
According to the experimental procedure, selected depressant
was added to the flotation cell. Then collector(s) and frothers
were added with conditioning times of 1 and 3 minutes,
respectively. Thereafter, air was opened and flowed inside
the cell and the collecting of the froth was started. The flo-
tation froth was scraped every 10 seconds. Eventually, the con-
centrate and tailing samples were filtered, dried, and assayed.
The experimental procedure is presented in Figure 2.
To investigate the pyrite depression, the type of reagents
and their values as well as particle PSD of flotation feed for
different experiments were changed, while other parameters,
such as impeller speed, pH, and air flow rate, were maintained
constant during the experiments. Table 2 represents the
conducted flotation experiments consisting all values of the
chemical reagents such as collectors, frothers, and depressant.
Figure 2. Flowsheet of the process of flotation experiments.
Evaluation of the flotation process
In order to evaluate the performance of flotation experiments
and to study the influence of reagents, recovery of copper and
iron were calculated using the mass balancing method
described by Wills according to the following formula:[17]
Cc
R¼ � 100 ½1�
ðC þ TÞ � f
where R is % recovery, C is dry weight of concentrate, c is %
grade of concentrate, T is dry weight of tailing, and f is % grade
of feed.
The effect of SMBS
Flotation experiments were carried out to investigate the influ-
ence of depressant consumption dosage on grade and recovery
of either copper or iron. Figure 3 illustrates the effect of using
100, 200, 300, and 400 g/t SMBS on copper and iron grades. It
has to be noted that, in these experiments, the other parameters
such as collector and frother type and dosages were kept con-
stant. As it can be seen that 100 g/t is an initial value of SMBS
dosage. In the absence of SMBS, copper grade is the minimum.
While adding 100 g/t and 200 g/t SMBS enhances the copper
grade from 8% to 12%. The maximum copper grade (13%)
can be recognized by addition of 200 g/t SMBS. Nevertheless,
adding more than that (i.e., 300 and 400 g/t) does not exhibit
any significant effect on it. In fact, it indicates that 200 g/t
SMBS is the minimized adequate dosage for covering
pyrite surface in order to make it hydrophilic. Bulatovic and

Figure 3. The effect of SMBS dosage on copper and iron grades.
Wyslouzil applied some combination of different depressants
(i.e., Unimin SD2OO-NaCN and ZnSO4-SW2-Cyanide) instead
of using only one depressant to three different sulfide ores with
the purpose of depression of pyrite and sphalerite.[18] They
reported that the use of depressant systems rather than a single
depressant is very important in operating plants. In addition,
significant improvement in metallurgical results can be
achieved by selecting appropriate depressant combinations.
Shen et al. showed that the sodium sulfite promotes the
oxidation of copper on pyrite as copper hydroxide.[1] Therefore,
an increase in the rate of oxidation on the pyrite surface and a
reduction in xanthate adsorption can explain the depression of
the flotation of pyrite in the presence of sodium sulfite.
According to the obtained results, using 200 g/t SMBS
implies the highest and the lowest level of copper and iron
grades. Also, adding 100 g/t SMBS decreases the iron grade
dramatically from 27% to 18%, whereas increasing its dosage
more than that (i.e., 200, 300, and 400 g/t) displays no signifi-
cant change on it.
Figure 4 demonstrates the effect of using SMBS in several
dosages on chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries. It can be seen
that in the absence of SMBS, chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries
are 77% and 19%, respectively. However, in the presence of
100 g/t SMBS their recoveries are increased and reduced to
83% and 15%, respectively. Afterwards, enhancing its amount
Figure 4. The effect of SMBS consumption dosage on chalcopyrite and pyrite
recoveries.
JOURNAL OF DISPERSION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 785
from 100 to 200 g/t leads to achieving the maximum copper
recovery, while under the same experimental condition the
lowest pyrite recovery can be observed. Eventually, further
enhancement of the SMBS dosage discloses no significant
changes on their both recovery rates and indeed their trends
are kept constant. With regard to the grade and recovery results
for copper and iron (Figures 3 and 4), 200 g/t SMBS can be
selected as the optimal level for achieving to the highest copper
recovery and the lowest iron recovery simultaneously. In a
study on flotation of pure pyrite, it was pointed out that pyrite
recovery reduced from 43% to 4% at pH 10 using 134 g/dm3
SMBS. In fact, it was pronounced that the complete depression
was accomplished using 100 g/dm3 SMBS.[7] However, they did
not present the effect of SMBS on pyrite recovery in a pyritic
copper ore. In another study, Mu et al. evaluated the depressing
effect of three lignosulfonate-based biopolymers (DP-1775,
DP-1777, and DP-1778).[19] It was found that they depressed
both the un-activated pyrite (at pH 5) and copper-activated
pyrite (at pH 9). In the case of flotation of un-activated pyrite,
the pyrite recovery decreased from 81.4% in the absence of DP-
1775 to 39.8% and 21.0% in the presence of 300 g/t and 500 g/t
DP-1775, respectively. Khmeleva et al. used sodium bisulfite
(NaHSO3) to depress pyrite.[20] They pointed out that the
sodium bisulfite addition decreases the recovery of pyrite either
with nitrogen or with air purging from 72% to 55% and from
57% to 23%, respectively. In addition, the depression effect of
sulfide was sharply enhanced when air was used.
The effect of sodium sulfide
Sodium sulfite is taken as an effective pyrite, sphalerite, and gal-
ena depressant, which is widely used in copper flotation
processes.[21–23] Nevertheless, the role of sodium sulfide
(Na2S) on flotation of copper ores and specifically on the high
pyritic copper complex ore has not been well documented in
the literature. Figure 5 displays the effect of using sodium sul-
fide in varied dosages on copper and iron grades. Evidently,
iron grade either in the absence or in the presence of sodium
sulfide is greater than copper content. Indeed, copper grade
is decreased due to the addition 100 g/t sodium sulfide;
however, afterwards its value is enhanced using 200 g/t of
Na2S. Furthermore, copper grade shows no significant change
by increasing the dosage of Na2S from 200 g/t to 400 g/t. On
Figure 5. Influence of the sodium sulphide on copper and iron grades.
786 A. HASSANZADEH AND M. HASANZADEH
the contrary, iron content is taken to the lowest amount by the
use of 200 g/t sodium sulfide. Based on achieving the greatest
copper assay and the minimum iron grade, 200 g/t Na2S can
be chosen as the optimal dosage for the selectivity of copper
flotation in the high pyritic copper ore. The flotation results
of three sulfide minerals in the presence of sodium sulfide is
taken into consideration by Wang et al.[24] It was shown that
in contrast to self-induced collectorless flotation, pyrite and
arsenopyrite were strongly floatable, while chalcopyrite and
galena were weakly floatable in the presence of sodium sulfide.
In other words, the self-induced collectorless flotation of
chalcopyrite and galena was depressed by the addition of
sulfide. Alternatively, the recovery of pyrite was evidently
increased when the concentration of Na2S added was above
2 � 10 4 at pH 11, showing strong Na2S induced collectorless
floatability.[25]
Figure 6 displays the effect of using sodium sulfide on
chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries in the studied high pyritic
copper sulfide ore. Obviously, their recoveries in the presence
of sodium sulfide are greater than that in the absence of it. In
the case of slightly increasing copper recovery, the reason can
be referred to the effect of partial sulfidation of copper oxide
minerals such as cuprite and tenorite. On the other hand, the
pyrite recovery enhancement is mainly related to its sodium
sulfide-induced collectorless flotation, which is very strong
for pyrite while chalcopyrite has no sodium sulfide-induced
collectorless floatability. Adding 100 g/t sodium sulfide
increases the copper recovery from 77% to 80%; however,
adding more than that (i.e., 200, 300, and 400 g/t) shows no sig-
nificant change. On the other side, pyrite recovery sharply rises
up from 19% to 47% by the addition of 100 g/t sodium sulfide.
While, adding 200 g/t sodium sulfide leads to its reduction
down to 33%. Afterwards, adding higher dosages pronounces
no meaningful change on pyrite recovery. Sun et al. reported
the effect of HS ion concentration on the sulfur-induced
flotation of pyrite.[26] The results implied that during sodium
sulfide-induced collectorless flotation, it involves the adsorp-
tion of HS ion on the mineral and the adsorbed HS can be
oxidized into sulfur to render pyrite and arsenopyrite surface
hydrophobicity due to the fact that the adsorption density of
HS ion increases with the HS ion concentration. Indeed,
the amount of extracted sulfur and the flotation rate increases
Figure 6. Influence of using sodium sulphide with different amounts on chalco-
pyrite and pyrite recoveries.
with the enhancement of adsorption density. They suggested
that the mechanism of sodium sulfide-induced collectorless
flotation of pyrite takes place by following reactions:
HSðaqÞ ! HSðadÞ ½2�
HSðadÞ ! SðadÞ þ H þ þ 2e ½3�
McCarron et al. used the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
method to analyze chalcopyrite and pyrite surfaces after being
conditioned in sodium sulfide solutions.[27] They found that
multilayer quantities of elemental sulfur were produced at
the surface of both minerals in 3 � 10 3 and 3 � 10 4 mol/L
sulfide solutions. It was also indicated that the surface cover-
age of elemental sulfur for pyrite was greater than that for
chalcopyrite. Eliseev et al.[28] concluded that elemental sulfur
is responsible for the hydrophobicity of pyrite and chalco-
pyrite treated with sodium sulfide.
The role of feed particle size distribution
Particle size plays a crucial role on flotation process. Generally,
there is always an optimal particle size for a certain ore. In the
case of copper sulfide ores, maximum recovery can be obtained
at intermediate particle size range of 50 µm to 75 µm.[29,30] In
this study, three different particle size patterns are applied to
the flotation experiments including d70, d75, and d80 of passing
75 µm. It should be mentioned that all experiments were
carried out in the presence of same chemical reagents, 40 g/t
flomin C-4132, 15 g/t F742, 15 g/t PO, and 200 g/t SMBS.
Figure 7 shows the effect of PSD on copper and iron grades
in the high pyritic feed. It can be observed that by increasing
grinding time and providing finer PSD (i.e., d75 ¼ 75% instead
of d75 ¼ 70%), the iron content enhances from 18% to 20%.
However, enhancing grinding time and subsequently supplying
80% under 75 µm causes no change in iron grade. Conversely,
the results illustrate that the copper content is increased from
14% to 15% with the response of changing the size distribution
from d70 ¼ 75 µm to d75 ¼ 75 µm. It can be concluded that the
changing copper and iron grades in the sense of particle size
patterns are not significant. According to achieving to the
suitable difference between copper and iron grades in the light
of lowest grinding consumption energy, d75 ¼ 70 µm can be
Figure 7. Copper and iron grades as a function of particle size distribution.

chosen as the optimum size distribution of the feed. Ceylan
examined the effect of particle size on pyrite flotation in the
presence of 100 g/t SMBS, 20 g/t MIBC, and 50 g/t aerophine
3418 (sodium isobutyl dithiophosphinate) at pH 11.8–12. d80
of PSD was selected as 68, 63, 60, 43, 41, and 35 µm.[9] Under
this condition, the maximum pyrite recovery was obtained
for tailing at 43 µm, while the highest pyrite recovery and the
lowest iron grade were identified at d80 of 68 µm. Hassanzadeh
and Karakas recently reported that a remarkable reduction in
iron grade can be observed in terms of using finer particle size
fractions compared to the coarser ones.[16] As seen in Figure 7,
roughly the similar result can be obtained for the case of high
pyritic copper ore.
Figure 8 represents the chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries
versus three different feed PSDs. It can be seen that the
maximum chalcopyrite recovery can be recognized when the
d75 is 70 µm. Chalcopyrite recovery is reduced by applying finer
feed size distributions (i.e., d75 of both 75 µm and 80 µm). How-
ever, the improved chalcopyrite recovery as a result of applying
finer PSD is not very significant. Furthermore, the most mini-
mum value of pyrite recovery is identified using d75 of 70 µm.
According to this and paying close attention to the obtained
grade and recovery results of chalcopyrite and pyrite in the
mentioned three PSD regimes, d75 ¼ 70% can be chosen as
the optimized particle size pattern for the studied high pyritic
copper complex ore. It has to be mentioned that despite the dis-
tinction in obtained chalcopyrite recoveries among the studied
PSD patterns is 3%, in copper concentration plants, an increase
of 1–2% in recovery and/or grade is economically notable.
Napier-Munn et al. pointed out that the product particle size
of grinding circuits has a significant influence on the ultimate
recovery of the valuable minerals at concentration plants.[31]
Also, it was theoretically shown that the chalcopyrite flotation
recovery decreases gradually as the range of particle size
becomes finer due to an increase in the number of particles
per weight unit, the deteriorating conditions for collision of par-
ticle bubble, and the effects such as increasing surface oxidation
of the particles.[32] Since inertial forces for fine as well as ultra-
fine particles can be neglected, one significant reason for their
low collision efficiency is ascribed to the poor interceptional
effect between the particle and bubble. The recovery of fine par-
ticles can be generally enhanced by means of small bubbles.[33]
Figure 8. The effect of three different particle size distribution regimes on
chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries.
JOURNAL OF DISPERSION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 787
Conclusion
In treatment of high pyritic copper sulfide ores, selection of an
effective depressant is a major determining factor in selective
and successful flotation of valuable minerals. Meanwhile,
efficient separation of precious minerals from gangue minerals
is not possible without the determination of the optimum feed
PSD. In this study, a series of flotation experiments were
carried out in order to evaluate and optimize the effect of
PSD, sodium sulfide, and SMBS on both chalcopyrite and pyrite
grades and recoveries in a high pyritic copper sulfide ore. The
maximum pyrite depression was found out by the use of
200 g/t SMBS. It was also concluded that increasing SMBS
dosage more than 200 g/t has no significant influence on copper
and iron grades and recoveries. Obtained pyrite recovery in
the presence of sodium sulfide was greater than that in the
absence of it. Meanwhile, pyrite recovery was recognized in
the maximum level by addition of 100 g/t sodium sulfide.
Nevertheless, adding more than 200 g/t showed no significant
change on both chalcopyrite and pyrite recoveries. Therefore,
the optimum consumption amount of SMBS was 200 g/t
in the absence of sodium sulfide with the purpose of achieving
the highest depression of pyrite along with obtaining the
maximum possible chalcopyrite recovery.
In addition, it was revealed that the chalcopyrite recovery
can be obtained in the greatest level using the PSD of 70%
passing 75 µm in comparison to two other patterns (i.e.,
d75 ¼ 75 µm to d80 ¼ 75 µm). Under the same experimental
condition, pyrite recovery was recognized as the minimum
amount. Thereupon, 70% passing 75 µm was selected as the
best PSD for the flotation of the studied ore. The main reason
of reducing chalcopyrite recovery with decreasing particle size,
was related to the low collision efficiency of fine particle.
Obtaining satisfied recovery rate in coarser PSDs in a flotation
process not only provides an increase in overall recovery but
also enables the flotation process to be carried out at a coarser
feed size. Indeed, it leads to the reduction in consumed energy
in primary grinding and regrinding processes.
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