Recovery of barite and quartz from lead and zinc tailings

2022-04-29

Many lead-zinc tailings still contain many valuable components, such as lead, zinc, sulfur, iron, barite, feldspar, quartz, mica, etc. The types, contents and respective occurrence states of valuable components in lead-zinc ore tailings can be recycled for the second time.

Recovery of lead and zinc ore

Lead-zinc sulfide tailings often contain galena, sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and gangue minerals include calcite, quartz, dolomite, mica, etc. The regrinding-flotation process is mostly used to process lead and zinc mine recycling.

The composition of lead-zinc oxide mine tailings is more complex, and the associated components are unstable. Therefore, the priority flotation process is often chosen as the main separation process, and the desliming operation is performed before the flotation to improve the flotation index and the dosage of chemicals.

Mixed lead-zinc ore tailings that contain both lead-zinc oxide and lead-zinc sulfide ore are usually separated by a mixed-partial flotation process or a mixed-priority flotation process. Separated from zinc concentrate.

Recovery of sulfur and iron

If the lead-zinc tailings contain refractory pyrrhotite, the sulfur content of the iron concentrate exceeds the standard due to its influence. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the recovery of sulfur to reduce the content of harmful impurities in the iron concentrate. Flotation-weak magnetic separation- The combined flotation process recovers sulfur and iron from lead and zinc tailings.

Recycled barite

The combined gravity-flotation process recovers barite from lead-zinc tailings. The lead-zinc ore tailings are sorted by the spiral chute-desulfurization flotation-regrinding-barite flotation process, which can effectively recover the low-grade barite in the lead-zinc tailings.

Re-selection and recovery of feldspar and quartz

The components affecting the quality of feldspar and quartz in lead-zinc tailings are mainly minerals such as siderite, mica and a small amount of fluorite. The combined magnetic-floating process can be used to recover feldspar and quartz in the tailings.