Flotation of iron ore processing plant tailings

In Sivas-Divriǧi Iron Ore Concentrator 600,000 tons of tailings is discarded annually. There are already one million tons of tailings deposited in the ponds from the previous production activities. The presence of Co, Ni and Cu in the tailings makes the beneficiation of those tailings attractive. In the experimental work, sulphide concentrates were produced from these two types of tailings by flotation. Under the optimum flotation conditions, a bulk sulphide concentrate assaying 0.376% Co, 0.721% Ni, 0.403% Cu, was obtained with 83.1% Co, 57.7% Ni and 59.0% Cu recoveries from the old tailings. On the other hand, another concentrate containing 0.384% Co, 0.687% Ni, 0.393% Cu was produced under the same flotation conditions with 94.7% Co, 84.6% Ni, and 76.8% Cu recoveries from the new process tailings.