STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF ULTRAFINE PARTICLE SIZE AND FROTHER TYPE VARIATIONS ON RECOVERY AND COPPER GRADE IN THE ROUGHER-SCAVENGER FLOTATION CIRCUIT AT PT AMMAN MINERAL NUSA TENGGARA

• Main Author: Gunawan Kaban, Elias
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/86395
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (PT AMNT) is one of the companies that conducts copper ore mining and processing activities. Copper processing is carried out by flotation process with the final product in the form of copper concentrate. Based on company data, it was found that the majority of tailings discharged were ultrafine (< 9 ?m) and there was a significant decrease in flotation recovery at ultrafine size. Frother can increase the flotation recovery of ultrafine ore particles. This research was conducted to study the effect of ultrafine particle size and frother type variation on copper content and recovery in rougher-scavenger flotation circuit. The research was divided into two experiments. The first experiment begins with taking samples from the cyclone overflow, rougher concentrate, scavenger concentrate, and final tail. The samples were then prepared and used for head content analysis, specific gravity analysis, and Particle Size Distribution (PSD) analysis. The second experiment began with sampling the final tail stream. The samples were then prepared and used for head analysis and flotation experiments. The head analysis consisted of head content analysis, specific gravity analysis, and PSD analysis. Flotation experiments were carried out with a variety of frother types, namely without the addition of frother, the addition of weak frother, and the addition of strong frother, with each variation carried out twice. PSD analysis was conducted on the flotation tailings. Copper content testing using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy was carried out on head samples, flotation concentrate, and PSD analysis results. From the experiment, the highest percent distribution of ultrafine-sized ore particles was obtained in the scavenger concentrate stream of 18.27%. The highest copper content of ultrafine ore particles was obtained in the rougher concentrate stream at 14.76% Cu. Ultrafine particles cause a decrease in copper recovery in the rougherscavenger flotation circuit. Copper recovery at ultrafine size in the rougherscavenger flotation circuit was 67.06%. From the flotation experiment, the highest average recovery was obtained with the addition of weak frother at 39.95%, then without the addition of frother at 37.60%, and the lowest with the addition of strong frother at 37.24%. The highest copper content in the ultrafine-sized concentrate with the addition of weak frother was 9.87% Cu, then without the addition of frother was 9.78% Cu, and the lowest with the addition of strong frother was 8.05% Cu. The addition of frother does not provide a significant increase in recovery and copper concentrate content at ultrafine size when compared to flotation without the addition of frother.