Associated Silver Ore Beneficiation Method

In the previous article, we introduced the Silver Ore Beneficiation of independent silver ore separately. In this article, we will focus on the Silver Ore Beneficiation of associated silver ore!

Associated silver mines refer to silver that is closely associated with other metal minerals. Silver mainly exists in other minerals in the form of isomorphous or fine-grained inclusions. In addition to these main associated metal minerals, it also contains a certain amount of gangue minerals, such as feldspar, mica, etc. The grade of silver in this type of mineral is generally low, but because it is associated with other useful metals, it has the value of comprehensive recovery.

Semi-crude silver mines often use flotation as the main method because silver is closely associated with other metals, combined with other processes to comprehensively recover silver and associated metals.

011.  Associated silver ore Flotation method

In associated silver mines, silver and main metal minerals coexist. Therefore, in the flotation process, not only the recovery of silver should be considered, but also the recovery of the main metal should be taken into account. Usually, the preferential flotation or mixed flotation method is adopted to float the main metal minerals and silver minerals together to obtain a mixed concentrate; then the mixed concentrate is separated to obtain copper concentrate, lead concentrate, zinc concentrate and silver concentrate respectively.

022. Associated silver gravity separation-flotation combined method

The gravity separation-flotation combined method is suitable for treating the situation where the silver minerals in the associated silver ore are unevenly distributed. Generally, the coarse silver in the mineral is first recovered by gravity separation, mainly by using the density difference between silver and gangue to enrich the coarse silver in gravity sedimentation, and then the gravity separation tailings are flotated to recover the fine silver.

033. Flotation-oxidation combined method

The flotation-oxidation method is mainly used for some difficult silver separation, such as when silver is wrapped in sulfides or closely associated with gangue ores. The flotation-oxidation combined process can improve the recovery rate of silver. First, most of the silver minerals and main metal minerals are recovered by flotation to obtain a mixed concentrate; then the mixed concentrate is oxidized to destroy the encapsulation relationship between the silver minerals and other minerals, and then the silver is leached and recovered. In practical applications, this process needs to reasonably control the oxidation conditions and leaching process parameters according to the specific properties of the ore to achieve an ideal beneficiation effect.

The above is an introduction to the beneficiation method of associated silver ore. In actual beneficiation plants, whether it is single silver or associated silver, or complex silver ore, the beneficiation process should be selected according to the properties of the silver ore to obtain an ideal silver recovery rate.