Hydrometallurgy Department of Scientific and Production Association “RIVS”, Saint Petersburg, Russia:

A. Ya. Boduen, Head of Liquid Processing Department, e-mail: A_Boduen@rivs.ru
B. S. Ivanov, Production Engineer
I. V. Ukraintsev, Chief Executive Officer

It is of current concern for Russia’s mineral raw material base to improve sulfide ore processing performance (recovery, concentrate quality). Sulfide ores make a good part of the registered economic resource base in Russia (about 20%). The analysis of the available data on industrial processing of copper-zinc ore shows that modernization of processing plants, introduction of advanced ore pretreatment methods, modification of flotation flow charts, use of new flotation agents contribute to the increased recovery of target metals and to slight improvement of quality of selective concentrates. The resultant low-grade copper concentrates with the copper content of 15–20% and high content of zinc have low market price, and their pyrometallurgical treatment toward crude copper production entails high expenditures and irreparable loss of commercial-value components. A relevant area of activity aimed at improvement of the current technologies for low-grade copper concentrate production, alongside with the maximization of opportunities of beneficiation cycle, is introduction of hydrometallurgical processes, in particular, autoclave conditioning. The article gives a review of the known autoclave conditioning technologies with the emphasis made on finding conditions for selective leaching of zinc.

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