Beneficiation of lead and zinc ores involves a series of steps that are designed to separate valuable minerals from gangue minerals and prepare the ore for further processing. The specific beneficiation process can vary depending on the characteristics of the ore and the desired end product, but typically involves crushing, grinding, flotation, and dewatering.
Lead and zinc beneficiation process begins with crushing and grinding the ore into a fine powder. This is usually done using a combination of crushers, mills, and grinders. This prepares the ore for subsequent flotation by liberating the valuable minerals from the gangue minerals.
Fine powered ore undergoes flotation, in which the crushed and ground ore is mixed with water and flotation reagents. Air is bubbled through the mixture, and the flotation reagents attach to the surface of the lead and zinc minerals, causing them to float to the top of the flotation cell. The gangue minerals sink to the bottom, and the resulting concentrate is a mixture of lead and zinc minerals. Usually, the lead and zinc flotation are undertaken in various bulk, cleaner and scavenger steps accompanying re-grind stations to ensure optimal metal recovery.
The tailings are then dewatered, typically using thickeners and filter presses, to remove excess water and produce a dry, high-grade concentrate. The most common method of dewatering is by using high-rate thickeners and filter presses. Thickeners are used to settle and separate the solids and liquids in the concentrate, while filter presses are used to remove the remaining water from the thickened concentrate. The flotation concentrate is dewatered with various filter types depending on the requirement, such as disc filters, filter presses, etc.
The resulting dry concentrate is a high-grade product that can be further processed. The smelting and refining of the concentrate of lead and zinc are performed. This involves melting the concentrate in a furnace and adding various chemicals to remove impurities and separate the lead and zinc into separate products.
