Sibay branch of JSC “Uchaly Mining and Processing Enterprise”, Sibay, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia:

M. N. Sabanova, Head of Research Laboratory, e-mail: m_sabanova@mail.ru

Institute of Problems of Comprehensive Exploration of Subsoils of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia:

I. V. Shadrunova, Academic Secretary, Head of Mining Ecology Department, e-mail: shadrunova_@mail.ru

Mining Engineering and Transport Institute, Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Magnitogorsk, Russia:

N. N. Orekhova, Assistant Professor of Mineral Processing Chair
O. E. Gorlova, Assistant Professor of Mineral Concentration Chair

Copper slags are more often considered as copper resource. Flotation is a technology, which makes possible to carry out a fuller and cheaper copper extraction. Taking into account the systematic underutilization of Ural concentration plants, copper slags processing and production of concentrate or copper-containing products would be efficient for solving of a number of economical, environmental and social problems, faced by township-forming enterprises of industrial towns. There were studied the practices of copper slags formation and processing in Ural steel companies. There were also presented the results of the following detailed studies: a structure study of slags, categorized as a fayalite-magnetite-pyrite type; and their copper-related flotation ability, compared to fayalite-ferrite slags and fayalite-ferrite-magnetite slags, depending on a grinding degree and process water parameters. Technological characteristics of complex slag copper flotation within closed water circulation system, were also studied together with influence of return water conditioning process on copper extraction. Nowadays, the return water, used in concentration plant, is the cheapest available water phase, suitable for slag flotation. Obtaining of optimum pH values of water environment during flotation is necessary in order to ensure a successful processing of various copper slags within a closed water circulation system in existing Concentration plants. Slag flotation results depend on water conditioning method, applied during its preparation. Several methods of water conditioning were studied. Better flotation parameters were obtained for complex fayalite-magnetite-pyrite slags, when a combined return water preparation method was applied.

1. Gazaleeva G. I., Orlov S. L., Savin A. G., Zakirnichnyy V. N. Perspektivnye napravleniya obogashcheniya tekhnogennykh otkhodov (Promising technologies of concentration of technogenic wastes). Ekologiya i promyshlennost Rossii = Ecology and industry of Russia. 2013. No. 1. pp. 13–16.
2. Sabanova M. N., Savin A. G., Shadrunova I. V., Orekhova N. N. Tipizatsiya mednykh shlakov Uralskogo regiona, praktika i perspektivy flotatsionnoy pererabotki na deystvuyushchikh obogatitelnykh fabrikakh (Typification of Ural copper slags; practice and prospects of flotation processing at operating concentration plants). Tsvetnye Metally = Non-ferrous metals. 2013. No. 8. pp. 14–19.
3. Koryukin B. M., Arabadzhieva V. A. et al. Flotatsiya shlakov metallurgicheskogo proizvodstva (Flotation of metallurgical industry slags). Sbornik nauchnykh trudov “UNIPROMED” (Collection of scientific proceedings “Unipromed”). Sverdlovsk, 1980.
4. “Tsvetnaya” ekologiya (“Non-ferrous” ecology). Uralskiy rynok metallov = Ural market of metals. 2002. No. 11. Available at : http://www.urm.ru/ru/75-journal63-article455.
5. Shadrunova I. V., Sabanova M. N., Orekhova N. N. Flotatsionnoe obednenie shlaka mednoy plavki v usloviyakh sushchestvuyushchego vodooborota obogatitelnoy fabriki, pererabatyvayushchey mednye i medno-tsinkovye rudy (Flotation impoverishment of copper fusion slag in conditions of existing water circulation of concentration plant, which process copper and copper-zinc ores). Trudy mezhdunarodnogo kongressa “Fundamentalnye osnovy tekhnologiy pererabotki i utilizatsii tekhnogennykh otkhodov” (Proceedings of international congress “Fundamental basis of technologies of processing and utilization of technogenic wastes”). Ekaterinburg, 2012. pp. 391–395.
6. Shadrunova I. V., Volkova N. A., Mastyugin S. A., Gorlova O. E. Tekhnologicheskie, ekonomi cheskie i ekologicheskie aspekty pererabotki tekhnogennogo syrya gorno-metallurgicheskikh predpriyatiy Urala (Technogenic, economic and ecological aspects of processing of technogenic raw materials of Ural mining and metallurgical enterprises). Ekologiya i promyshlennost Rossii = Ecology and industry of Russia. 2013. No. 8. pp. 16–21.