Moscow State University (Russia):

Kononov O. V., Ph. D. in Geology and Mineralogy, Professor, okonon2007@yandex.ru

National Mineral Resources University (Mining University) (Russia):

Kotova E. L., Ph. D. in Geology and Mineralogy, Leading Specialist, satellite24@yandex.ru

REC «Mekhanobr-Tekhnika» (Russia):

Ustinov I. D., Doctor of Chemistry, Head of the Research Educational Center, ustinov_id@npk-mt.spb.ru

The authors are indebted to V. V. Belikov, Ye.V. Korolyova, V. A. Rasulov, G. A. Syomochkin, V. A. Cherkassky for the assistance and consultations in implementation of this work.

The results of the studies performed on the Gitche-Tyrnyauz deposit talcose molybdenite ore with associated gold mineralization processing are presented. The ore sample contained 0.2 % sulfide molybdenum, 3 g/t gold and approximately 22 % talcum. This type of ore cannot be processed by a conventional flotation flow sheet with application of non-polar collectors due to high content of naturally-hydrophobic talcum. The processing studies were conducted on two flow sheets. Flow sheet 1 included finely-crushed 20–5 mm size ore fraction photometric sorting operation, blending of photometric sorting concentrate with –5 mm size-fraction, blended product re-grinding to 60 % –0.074 micron size-fraction and its flotation. Photometric sorting was performed using one-channel sorter with pneumatic rejection and included rougher and scavenging operations with blending of concentrates. Photometric sorting upper size boundary is determined by mineral aggregate liberation size, its increase even to 25 mm resulted in significant sorting performance degradation. Photometric sorting is more efficient following ore fine crushing in KID vibratory crusher, than after crushing in jaw crusher, owing to selective liberation of mineral aggregates. Flotation was conducted by flow sheet with rougher, scavenging and three cleaning operations. Flow sheet 2 included only ground ore flotation with process parameters being identical to flotation parameters of Flow sheet 1. In order to prevent hydrophobic flocculation and non-selective talcum and molybdenite flotation, only sulphydrate was used as collector. Flotation final product — rougher Мо-Au concentrate — was treated by thermo-chemical flow sheet with oxidizing roasting at 625 °С with sulfur elimination, autoclave-sodium leaching of molybdenum at 225 °С, its precipitation as sulfide, and gold recovery from autoclave cake through cyanidation and sorption by carbon-in-pulp process. Molybdenum and gold throughout recoveries were close by both flow sheets and amounted to approximately 82 and 73 %, respectively.

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