Investigation of Copper Recovery from a New Copper Deposit (Nussir) in Northern Norway

Abstract

Norway has seen an upsurge of interest in exploiting its mineral deposits during the last decade. One of the major areas of interest is a huge copper deposit, operated by Nussir ASA located in the Repparfjord tectonic window in the Caledonides of west Finnmark. Nussir ASA is evaluating the Nussir and Ulveryggen mineral resources that contain copper sulfides with a small amount of gold and silver bearing minerals. The performance of flotation operations is generally evaluated on the basis of degree of liberation of minerals or the surface interactions between the collector and mineral. Firstly, size-bysize mineralogical characterization of the flotation feed and cumulative final product using Zeiss automated mineralogy techniques (Mineralogic) revealed that mineral liberation heavily influenced the flotation behavior of the ore. Furthermore, in order to assess the role of pH, collector concentration and flotation time, bench scale flotation experiments were performed. The metallurgical results were maximum between pH 6 and 8 and at collector concentration 6 × 10 −5 M. A correlation is established using the zeta potential and Hallimond flotation tests to assess the role of operating parameters in flotation. The distinctive role of process mineralogy and flotation chemical influence for copper mineral flotation of Nussir ore is presented in this article.

Investigation of Copper Recovery from a New Copper Deposit (Nussir) in Northern-Norway: Thionocarbamates and Xanthate-Thionocarbamate Blend as Collectors

“…The natural ore flotation results are consistent with the pure mineral flotation and adsorption studies (FTIR). The recovery of Cu, Ag and Au was below 75% using xanthate collector [2] at this collector dosage. In the current study, it is noted that the recovery of these valuable metals is significantly increased with thionocarbamates due to high selectivity.…”

“…The decrease in zeta potential values of the copper sulphides conditioned with BBT was far more negative than those conditioned with SIBX. The comparison is produced with respect to our parallel study [2,3]. Chalcocite showed a maximum decrease in zeta potential values among the three copper minerals, which is understandably due to the absence of Fe in the lattice and thus being prone to less Chalcocite showed a maximum decrease in zeta potential values among the three copper minerals, which is understandably due to the absence of Fe in the lattice and thus being prone to less oxidation.…”

“…The decrease in zeta potential values of the copper sulphides conditioned with BBT was far more negative than those conditioned with SIBX. The comparison is produced with respect to our parallel study [2,3]. of the ore is shown in Table 1.…”

“…In the process of developing a flowsheet for Cu-recovery, thionocarbamate and its blend with xanthate are examined as candidates for flotation collector to beneficiate the ore. Xanthate and dithiophosphate were employed as collectors for Nussir copper ore in our previous studies and high copper recovery (95%) and grade (24%) were observed but at the expense of high dosage of collector [2,3]. In the current study, the flotation behaviour of copper minerals from Nussir ore samples is investigated in the presence of a thionocarbamate collector with prior analysis of collector influence on pure minerals.…”

“…Consequently, more selective collectors are being used in the froth flotation process for high recovery of the existing resources. As mentioned in the earlier work [2,3], a new Nussir copper mine located in northern Norway is planning to begin its production in the near future. The copper minerals (chalcopyrite, chalcocite and bornite) are uniformly distributed in all size ranges in the ore sample under study.…”