Recovery technology of copper and sulfur from flotation tailings of a copper mine

A large copper mine contains copper grade 0.21%, sulfur grade 2.10% and gold grade 0.11g/t in flotation tailings, which locates in southwest of China.SIn addition, due to the early construction and operation of the mine, the mineral processing technology was relatively low at that time, and the mineral processing index was not ideal, and much more copper was lost in the tailings.SWith the gradual increase in the demand for resources from national economic development, it is of great practical significance to carry out resource recovery and reuse for old tailings and realize the receivable collection of valuable resources.STherefore, this paper carried out a detailed beneficiation test study on the tailings. Through the study of the process and reagent system, the efficient collector BKL-1 was developed. The process of "copper and sulfur priority flotation in sequence" was adopted.SThe copper concentrate with copper recovery of 81.63% and gold recovery of 25.39% and the sulfur concentrate with sulfur grade of 42.15% and sulfur recovery of 81.18% can further realize the comprehensive recovery of useful resources while reducing tailing discharge.