Simulation of volumetric fracture of copper ore and implications for laboratory flotation

The influence of intergranular compression on floatability of copper ore is analyzed. The results of volumetric fracture in a laboratory intergranular compression testing shell are compared with the outcome of industrial-scale high-pressure grinding rolls. The subject of research was copper ore which was tested under different pressures and at different number of the compression cycles, with the subsequent evaluation of flotation performance. The achievable recovery of copper in variation of loading parameters on the laboratory plant is shown and compared with the results of flotation of middlings after the industrial grinding rolls. It is found that lab-scale simulation at a certain level of the contact stress ensures formation of a fracture structure characterized by the developed system of microcracks similar to the production-scale fracturing. This leads to the comparable scale of dissociation of sulfide minerals and to the analogous values of copper recovery. The absolute divergence of the recovery indexes is not higher than 1.5%, which is reflective of the high reliability of the volumetric fracture mechanism simulation. With the sufficient collected statistics, the developed procedure can be used for the preliminary evaluation of grinding roll efficiency in copper ore treatment, as well as for the justification and optimization of intergranular compression process variables at the stage of planning, design and upgrading of processing plants. 

Makhno N. A. Simulation of volumetric fracture of copper ore and implications for laboratory flotation. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2026;(8):116-126. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2026_8_0_116.

N.A. Makhno, Graduate Student, Irkutsk National Research Technical University, 664074, Irkutsk, Russia, e-mail: Makhno_N_A@mail.ru.

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