INTRODUCTION

The Kolwezi concentrator, KZC in acronym, processes oxidized ores (siliceous or dolomitic).
Currently the West Group of Gécamines is stopped for lack of a reliable deposit. Another
reason for the stoppage is the exorbitant cost of operating the KINGAMYAMBO mine and
the high production cost at KZC (18 USD per ton of ore processed instead of 12 to 14 USD).

The process implemented at KZC mainly comprises the following unit operations: dry
grinding or crushing, wet grinding, flotation, settling and filtration. This concentrator
processes an average of 2000 to 2500 dry tons of ore per day at feed grades of 2 to 2.5% Cu
and 0.5 to 0.6% Co. And produces a concentrate with grades of 15 to 18% Cu and 2 to 3%
Co, with recovery yields of 70 to 75% Cu and 50 to 55% Co. The rejection averages 0.5 to
0.6% Cu and 0.2 to 0.3% Co .

Embankment 293 is an old embankment which was formerly considered as embankment with
rejection. It averages 2.5% Cu and 0.4% Co. These ores came from the GH open pit mine.
This mine is currently flooded, however, it still belongs to Gécamines.

In order to improve the metallurgical performance of the concentrator, studies are initiated
with a view to proposing and establishing better flotation conditions which are best suited to
ore feeds. These performances are both technical and economic. Indeed, the production cost
of KZC is around 18 USD per tonne of ore processed. This cost is high compared to the
Gécamines standard which requires a cost of 12 to 14 USD per tonne of minerals processed. It
should also be noted that the reagents represent approximately 35% of the production cost of
KZC; hence the need to carry out studies on other less expensive reagents and also a good
optimization of the doses of the reagents used in this concentrator.

In this work, we exploited two other types of collectors apart from the T3Y which is the one
used at KZC. These are the FLOMIN 7160 and MX 5149, Cytec products. This is how our
work is entitled: “ Study of the buoyancy of the ores of the embankment 293 at the
Kolwezi concentrator in the presence of the FLOMIN 7160 and the MX 5149 as
collectors ”.
To achieve this, we carried out flotation tests by optimizing the doses of the 3 experienced
collectors: T3Y, Flomin and MX. A calculation of reagent consumption was carried out to fix
the choice on one of the three collectors.

In addition to the introduction and the conclusion, this work includes a bibliographical part
which abounds the presentation of the concentrator of Kolwezi, the generalities on flotation as
well as the flotation of oxidized ores using xanthates. The second part, experimental, includes
the experimental procedure and the presentation of the results.

SUMMARY

The present work consists in studying the buoyancy of the ores of the embankment 293 at the
concentrator of Kolwezi. It is a backfill of ores formerly considered as waste by Gécamines.
Given the difficulties Gécamines is currently experiencing, supplying this type of backfill is
essential.

Currently the West Group of Gécamines is stopped for lack of a reliable deposit. Another
cause of the stoppage is the high production cost at the concentrator (18 USD per ton of ore
processed) and the cost of operating the KINGAMYAMBO mine.

Our study consisted of determining the optimal doses of the collectors, in this case that of
T3Y used at KZC, that of FLOMIN 7160 and that of MX5149 currently being tested at
FRONTIER sprl.

The best results were obtained with the MX collector at a dose of 1 g/t. It is with this optimal
dose collector that we calculated the cost of consumption of reagents for the daily supply of
2000 tons of ore. We found a cost of 6294.09 USD per day or 188822.986 USD per month.
With this cost, we estimate the cost of production at 13.11 USD per tonne of ore processed
considering that the cost of reagents represents 32% of the cost of production.

CONCLUSION
The objective of this work was to improve the buoyancy of the ores of embankment 293 by
experimenting with two other types of collectors: the FLOMINE and the MX.
To do this, we carried out flotation tests under KZC conditions with T3Y as a collector. At a
dose of 328 g/t of T3Y, the overall yields are 73.54% and 40.41% respectively for copper and
cobalt. The top concentrate contains 17.41% Cu and 1.8% Co. Cobalt recovery is therefore
low with this collector.

The second series of tests was to optimize the dose of the second tested collector, FLOMIN
7160. The best results were obtained at a dose of 1.5 g/t. Yields of 84.67% and 52.97%
respectively for copper and cobalt were achieved. Note that with this collector, the buoyancy
of cobalt minerals is still low. The head concentrate contains 18.32% Cu and 1.81% Co.

Finally, we experimented with the third collector: MX 5149. At the dose of 1 g/t considered
optimal, we achieved the best performance. Recovery yields are 92.25% for copper and
86.49% for cobalt. The head concentrate grades 15.87% Cu and 2.65% Co. This is the
collector we have chosen to process the ores from embankment 293 at KZC. The economic
estimate was made with this collector and at its optimum dose of 1 g/t. The other reagents are:

 NaHS: 2624 g/t

 Dolomitic mix: 164 g/t
 Sodium silicate: 200 g/t
 Booster: 40 g/t
 G 41: 82 g/t.
After economic calculation, the cost of the reagents amounts to $ 6,294.09 per day and
therefore $ 188,822.986 per month for a supply of 1,500 tons of ore from this backfill per day.
On this, the production cost amounts to $13.11 per tonne of ore processed compared to the
T3Y which gives a production cost of $18 per tonne processed. The production cost was
calculated by considering that the reagents represent 32% of this cost.