3.3.2.

Material balance simulation procedure

Material balance of froth flotation circuit of the operating plant will be done step by step. The
procedure is as follow:

1. Calculation of unknown parameters of flow 1 (plant Feed).

- Known parameters:

o Solid mass flowrate.

o Copper grade.
o Pulp specific gravity.
o Water specific gravity.

- In the excel cell “C7” (solid mass flowrate), type number “1243.01”.
- In the excel cell “C10” (copper grade), type number “1.93”.
- In the excel cell “C19”(pulp specific gravity), type number “1239”.
- In the excel cell “C15” (water specific gravity), type number “1000”.
- In the excel cell “C9” (solid specific gravity), type “=(0.0005*C10^2+0.0259*C10+2.6728)*1000”
(equation 32).
- In the excel cell “C8” (solid volume flowrate), type “=C7/C9*1000”.
- In the excel cell “C11” (copper mass flowrate), type “=C7*C10*10”
- In the excel cell “C20” (solid percent), type “=100*C9*(C19-C15)/(C19*(C9-C15))” (equation 8).
- In the excel cell “C17” (pulp mass flowrate), type “=C7/C20*100”.
- In the excel cell “C13” (water mass flowrate), type “=C17-C7”.
- In the excel cell “C14” (water volume flowrate), type “=C13/C15*1000”.
- In the excel cell “C18” (pulp volume flowrate), type “=C8+C14”.

2. Calculation of unknown parameters of flow 2 (scavenger cleaner tailing)

- Known parameters:

o Copper grade.
o Pulp specific gravity.
o Water specific gravity.

- In the excel cell “D10” (copper grade), type number “0.88”.

- In the excel cell “D19” (pulp specific gravity), type number “1104”.
- In the excel cell “D15” (water specific gravity), type number “1000”.

The solid mass flowrate of the scavenger cleaner tailing is an unknown value (recycle flow) and it
becomes the Excel solver variable. The starting value of the solid mass flowrate of the scavenger cleaner tailing
is “100”.

Joseph Kafumbila
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