JSC “Russian Copper Company”, Ekaterinburg, Russia:
I. A. Altushkin, Chairman of the Board of Directors
Yu. A. Korol, Vice President

JSC “Alexandrinskaya Mining Company”, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia:

N. S. Bondarenko, Chief Executive Officer
A. V. Nazarov, Chief Dresser, e-mail: nazarov_andrey@agk.rcc-group.ru

In 2010 Alexandrinskaya Mining Company was confronted with the issue of switching to Chebachie deposit ore processing. Copper-zinc pyritic ores of this deposit are essentially different by its material composition from ores that are processed at the plant. Due to this fact, the plant was modernized including change in process scheme, set of equipment and arrangement of used equipment. The productivity of the processing plant was increased twice as much and reached 800.000 tonnes a year. The Russian leading specialized organizations were involved in flowsheet design for a new type of ores and further design engineering. The bulk-differential flowsheet was approved as processing technology. The plant went through reconstruction and modernization during 2010–2012. Further work on the Chebachie deposit ore processing showed that approved flowsheet has failed to provide the achievement of design targets. The world practice survey, learning of similar production experience and a number of research works allowed to propose and implement another flowsheet based on differential floatation. The plant operating experience after assimilation of new technology approved its prospectiveness and ability to reach all the design targets of quality production and metal extraction.

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