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Feasibility Study on the Modification and Improvement of Flotation Circuits at Enrichment Plant 2 of the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex

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Abstract

A common problem recently encountered with the increase in the rate of input feed at Enrichment Plant 2 of the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex is the loss of value to the tails, translating to lower recoveries. The feasibility of the direct transfer of part of the high-grade concentrate from rougher stages to an appropriate position along the circuit was studied, and two positions were proposed for direct transfer of the concentrate. One position was the feed flow into cleaner cells, and the other was the feed flow into the recleaner cell. The results indicated that transferring the concentrate from the first unit of the rougher stage to the feed flow into the cleaner cells was feasible, with no limitations, while the second position required the installation of a set of hydrocyclones. It was found that the transfer of concentrate to the proposed positions not only addressed the problem of limited cell capacity, resulting in debottlenecking of the circuit, but also improved metallurgical separation efficiency up to 1.4%.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the research and development center of Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex for funding this project, and the University of Kashan for their contribution to this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

    Reza Kohan, Bijan Taheri & Monireh Heshami

  2. Research and Development Division of Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, Kerman, Iran

    Behrouz Maghsodi

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  1. Reza Kohan
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  2. Bijan Taheri
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  3. Monireh Heshami
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  4. Behrouz Maghsodi
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Correspondence to Bijan Taheri.

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Kohan, R., Taheri, B., Heshami, M. et al. Feasibility Study on the Modification and Improvement of Flotation Circuits at Enrichment Plant 2 of the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 37, 555–566 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-020-00177-x

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