Author 1:
Name & Surname: Arustamyan M. A.
Company: RIVS Science and Production Association (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
Work Position: Executive Director
Scientific Degree: Candidate of Engineering Sciences
Contacts: e-mail: rivs@rivs.ru

Author 2:
Name & Surname: Solovieva L. M.
Company: RIVS Science and Production Association (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
Work Position: Deputy Director, Production Research Department

Nikolaevskaya processing plant (NPP) with the annual design capacity of 1.5 Mt was commissioned in December 1980. In the second half of 1990, the plant reached the annual capacity of 2 Mt. Low NPP production data in terms of processing of Artemievsk deposit complex ore conditioned development of a new technology to improve the complex ore processing performance. At the present time, NPP is supplied by complex ore from Artemievsk deposit and copper–zinc ore from Yubileino-Snegerikhinsky deposit. In 2011 the experts of RIVS worked out the production procedures for reconstruction of NPP to process Artemievsk complex ore using a new technology combining gravity dressing and flotation. From the end of 2012 through September 2013, NPP had been stage-wise reconstructed without suspension of the production, thus rhythm of work and the scheduled capacity of the plant were sustained. The reconstruction included the reequipment of the plant with the new machines manufactured by RIVS (flotation machines, conditioning tanks, attrition flotation units and pump-and-cyclone plants), advanced control tools and new reagent feeders. In October 2013, after the reconstruction of the main building of NPP, Artemievsk complex ore processing reached the design capacity in terms of copper and gold recovery in the copper concentrate and zinc recovery in the zinc concentrate. In connection with the absence of thickening and filtering equipment for the lead concentrate and due to the low lead content of ore, the temporary circuit of copper–lead concentrate production had been commissioned on June 1, 2014.

1. Tekhnologicheskiy reglament na proektirovanie Nikolaevskoy obogatitelnoy fabriki dlya pererabotki rudy Artemevskogo mestorozhdeniya v obeme 1 600 tysyach tonn rudy v god (Technological regulations for designing of Nikolaevsk Concentration Plant for processing of 1600 thousand tones of Artemievskoe deposit ore per year). Saint Petersburg : Scientific and Production Association “RIVS”, 2011. (in Russian).
2. E. N., Soloveva L. M., Pokerechnikova O. Yu. Sovershenstvovanie tekhnologii obogashcheniya polimetallicheskoy rudy Artemevskogo mestorozhdeniya (Improvement of concentration technology of polymetallic ore of Artemievskoe deposit). Gornyi Zhurnal=Mining Journal. 2012. No. 11. pp. 63–67.