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Mineralogical Characterisation of an Ag–In-Bearing Polymetallic Ore with Regard to Its Mineral Separation Behaviour

  • Mineral Processing of Nonferrous Metals
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Abstract

Polymetallic ores always contain precious rare metals which have high economic value. There is a large-scale copper (Cu)–zinc (Zn)–stannum (Sn) polymetallic ore deposit in Dulong, Yunnan Province, China. The polymetallic ore deposit contains a lot of silver (Ag) and indium (In). In this paper, the polymetallic ore is investigated to explore the characteristics of its process mineralogy by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), optical microscopy (OM), and electron probe micro-analyser (EMPA). The contents of the main valuable elements in the ore are Cu 0.20%, Zn 3.93%, Sn 0.47%, Fe 22.70% and S 9.90%. Cu, Zn, Sn, and Fe mainly occur in chalcopyrite, marmatite, cassiterite and magnetite, respectively. In addition, as rare metal elements, there are also Ag 4.9 g/t and In 90.50 g/t in the ore. Ag mainly occurs in matildite and an unknown mineral (Ag0.75(Zn, Fe)0.25S) and these two minerals are all enclosed and disseminated in marmatite. In does not form an independent mineral, but an isomorphism element which mainly occurs in marmatite. Based on the results of the process mineralogy and actual conditions, a feasible flowsheet for this polymetallic ore is designed and optimized. The industrial experimental results show that processing capacity of the plant and the indexes of the concentrates are improved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Land Resource Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Yu-meng Chen, Xian Xie, Xiong Tong & Hao-zi Lv

  2. Yunnan Province Engineering Research Center for Reutilization of Metal Tailings Resources, Kunming, 650093, China

    Yu-meng Chen, Xian Xie, Xiong Tong & Hao-zi Lv

  3. Kunming Metallurgy Research Institute, Kunming, 650093, China

    Xian Xie

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  1. Yu-meng Chen
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  2. Xian Xie
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Correspondence to Xian Xie.

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Chen, Ym., Xie, X., Tong, X. et al. Mineralogical Characterisation of an Ag–In-Bearing Polymetallic Ore with Regard to Its Mineral Separation Behaviour. Russ. J. Non-ferrous Metals 59, 16–22 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821218010066

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821218010066

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