inglés al español Técnico/Ingeniería Minería y minerales / Gemas

The standard method of separating copper sulfide minerals from molybdenite is to use sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) to depress the copper and pyrite minerals and float the molybdenite and other natural floating minerals. Usually this is done on a final copper-moly bulk concentrate. However, for Toromocho ores, moly recovery to a final bulk concentrate was greatly reduced in the copper cleaning process when conditions in the cleaning circuit were adjusted to reduce silicate insols. Therefore, a decision was made to test a Cu-Mo separation circuit similar to that used at the Brenda Mine in B.C. Canada, in which the NaHS treatment was applied to a once cleaned bulk concentrate before any regrinding. The advantage of this circuit was to increase Mo recovery to a product which was separate from the copper concentrate by removing most of the flotable ***insols***. Both flowsheet options were evaluated in a test program using a sample obtained from Toromocho ores.