Mechanical flotation cell treating polymetallic sulphide ore

Lead and zinc: selective flotation on ores that rarely cooperate

Copper, lead and zinc polymetallic ores treated by preferential flotation or bulk flotation followed by separation, with concentrate regrinding where liberation requires it.

Request a project proposal

Process route

Polymetallic sulphides are the hardest flotation problem in the base metal group, because depressants for one mineral usually affect another. The reagent regime comes out of locked cycle tests.

01

Crushing and grinding

Crushing and closed circuit ball milling to the liberation size established by test work.

02

Preferential or bulk flotation

Either lead is floated first with zinc depressed, or a bulk concentrate is produced and separated afterwards, depending on the ore.

03

Concentrate regrind

Bulk concentrate is reground where composite particles limit the cleaner grade.

04

Separation and cleaning

Selective flotation splits the bulk concentrate into lead, zinc and, where present, copper products, each cleaned in several stages.

05

Dewatering

Thickening and filtration for each concentrate stream, and tailings handling.

Equipment in this circuit

Manufactured at our own bases and matched to the circuit capacity, not bought package by package.

PE series jaw crusher

Jaw crusher

PE series for primary crushing and PEX series for secondary and fine crushing.

Wet ball mill

Ball mill

Wet grid mills for primary grinding and overflow mills for secondary grinding.

Hydrocyclone cluster

Hydrocyclone

XC, XHCV and XN series for classification, desliming and thickening duty.

JJF mechanical flotation cell

Flotation cells

SF, JJF, XCF, KYF and BF machines up to 320 m3, plus flotation columns.

Deep cone thickener

Thickener

Deep cone and high efficiency thickeners up to 100 m diameter.

Plate and frame filter press

Filter press

Plate and frame and membrane presses for concentrate and tailings dewatering.

Reference projects

Figures are those reported for these projects in the Xinhai project and test brochures.

Inner Mongolia, China

0.99 Mt/a lead and zinc processing plant

Plant scope
Heilongjiang, China

500 t/d lead and zinc processing plant

Plant scope
Namibia

1,100 t/d copper and lead processing plant

Plant scope

Common questions

Preferential or bulk flotation, which is better?
Neither is better in general. Preferential flotation avoids a separation stage but demands tight reagent control. Bulk flotation with later separation is more forgiving on variable feed. Test work on your sample decides.
How are silver credits handled?
Silver usually reports with the lead concentrate in these circuits, and the flotation conditions are set so that the payable silver follows the payable lead.
What about oxidised lead-zinc ores?
Oxidised ores need sulphidisation or a different route entirely, which is exactly the case where exploratory test work matters most before any flowsheet is drawn.

Related

Copper

Bulk and selective circuits for copper and copper polymetallic ores.

Copper

Test work

Reagent regime, pH and grind size established by locked cycle testing.

Test work

EPC delivery

The full plant built and commissioned under one contract.

EPC

Send the assay and the tonnage target for your Lead and zinc project.

We start with test work on your sample, then size the circuit around the result. Tell us where the project stands and what you need next.

Request a project proposal