The overall kinetics of roasting of chalcopyrite

Conclusion

Examination of calcine from a multihearth roaster and a 4 in diam fluid bed roaster suggest that part of the concentrate feed remains unreacted while the remainder reacts to completion forming magnetite. No systematic difference is observed between samples from the fluid bed roaster and the multihearth roaster. An empirical equation is proposed (Eq. [6]) for estimating magnetite content for different level of sulfur removal.

The work described here was carried out during a vacation school at Mount Isa Mines, Limited, Mount Isa. The author wishes to thank the management of the company for providing facilities for this work and for permission to publish this paper; the students Messrs. Bruce, Fisher, Hanrahan, Ho, Hoa, Hutton, Koh, McPherson, Moretto and Schache who carried out the experiments; and to the laboratory staff at Mount Isa Mines for carrying out the numerous analyses.