Recovery of Sericite from Copper Tailings

The Yinshan Lead‑Zinc Mine, under Jiangxi Copper Corporation, produces approximately 500,000 tons of tailings annually. The sericite content in the tailings is second only to quartz, with contents of 33%, 34%, and 29% in the lead‑zinc tailings, copper‑sulfur tailings, and tailings pond tailings, respectively. The sericite reserves reach 3.6 million tons. The concentrator uses flotation to recover sericite from the lead‑zinc tailings and copper‑sulfur tailings. The production flow sheet is shown in Figure 4-27. The separation results show that the sericite recovery from the copper‑sulfur tailings is 63.79%, with sericite grades of 96.70% and 64.50% for Concentrate I and Concentrate II, respectively. For the lead‑zinc tailings, the sericite recovery is 58.12%, with sericite grades of 96.20% and 62.50% for Concentrate I and Concentrate II, respectively.

Figure 4-26 Process flow sheet of gravity – magnetic – gravity – flotation – gravity