Efficiency of preliminary gravity separation of gold-bearing ore from the Malinovka deposit

Reduction in volume of ore to be processed and the increase in the content of a useful component in ore improves the valuable mineral extraction in basic processes of concentration and decreases the number of ‘neck stages’ in a work cycle. This article discusses preconcentration of gold-bearing ore from the Malinovka deposit in the Primorsky Krai of Russia. Preliminary float-and-sink separation by the size grade of –10+5 mm enabled gold recovery of 71.19% at the concentrate yield of 10.9% and gold content of 15.62 g/t with production of tailings with the gold content of 0.77 g/t, which disallowed recommending that method as efficient concentration technique. Using the lab-scale centrifugal concentrator KN-0,1 (ITOMAK) and the GRG test results, it was found that gold recovery in the ultimate concentrate totaled 37.38% at the yield of 5.1%. The content of gold was 19.78% in the ultimate concentrate and 1.78 g/t in the tailings. This means that centrifugal concentration can only be included in the early phase of the processing circuit to catch free gold. Preliminary centrifugal concentration of Malinovka gold ore allows increasing gold recovery in the subsequent flotation process by 1.9–6.9%, from 85.2–90.4 to 92.1–93.6%, and obtaining tailings with the gold content less than 0.3 g/t. Thus, efficiency of gravity methods used in the early stages of composite processing circuits for the gold-bearing ore from the Malinovka deposit is evaluated.

Samusev A. L., Timofeev A. S., Lantsova L. B. Efficiency of preliminary gravity separation of gold-bearing ore from the Malinovka deposit. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2024;(7):155-168. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2024_7_0_155.

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No. 22–17-00149, https://rscf.ru/project/22–17-00149/

A.L. Samusev¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Senior Researcher, e-mail: andrey63vzm@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7324-0353,
A.S. Timofeev¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Senior Researcher, e-mail: Timofeev_ac@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3382-6007,
L.B. Lantsova¹, Researcher, e-mail: lblancova@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6555-4165,
¹ Institute of Problems of Comprehensive Exploitation of Mineral Resources of Russian Academy of Sciences, 111020, Moscow, Russia.

A.S. Timofeev, e-mail: Timofeev_ac@mail.ru.

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