goldandsilver123
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2015
- Messages
- 203
Hello,
I got called to work with an investor that recently bought 100 tonnes of ore that was extracted in the 1960s, the mine at the time was closed by the governement and the ore was just sitting in a pile (just this year he got the paperwork right), the mine will only be explored once this pile is processed.
The copper content is around 2 - 4 %, flotation is not in mind because of the cost and area needed.
What we tested was mix the grounded ore (60 mesh) with fluorite and the reducing agent and melt everything in a furnace.
In small scale we used flour, 1 kg batch. In the medium sized test (200 kg of ore) we used "heavy oil".
In the ore there's a mix of sulfides and carbonates/hydroxides of copper.
In the next step we want to use a rotatory furnace with around 1000 kg.
Do you have any suggestion about the reducing agent?
The copper was sampled to test for the precious metals content.
Thanks
I got called to work with an investor that recently bought 100 tonnes of ore that was extracted in the 1960s, the mine at the time was closed by the governement and the ore was just sitting in a pile (just this year he got the paperwork right), the mine will only be explored once this pile is processed.
The copper content is around 2 - 4 %, flotation is not in mind because of the cost and area needed.
What we tested was mix the grounded ore (60 mesh) with fluorite and the reducing agent and melt everything in a furnace.
In small scale we used flour, 1 kg batch. In the medium sized test (200 kg of ore) we used "heavy oil".
In the ore there's a mix of sulfides and carbonates/hydroxides of copper.
In the next step we want to use a rotatory furnace with around 1000 kg.
Do you have any suggestion about the reducing agent?
The copper was sampled to test for the precious metals content.
Thanks