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Copper Concentrate: Sulphide Ore Stamped, Jigged and Tabled at the Anaconda Mill (Richards, Ore Dressing 1903)
Copper sulphide ore is too lean to smelt as mined. At the Anaconda mill it was screened, crushed under steam stamps, sorted by settling speed in rising water, and run over jigs and slime tables, where the heavy copper minerals sink and the light quartz and feldspar wash away.
Result: concentrates of 12 to 20 % copper; 100 tons of ore gave 50 to 75 tons. The mill handled 2,500 to 2,700 tons a day.
Source: Robert H. Richards, Ore Dressing vol. II (1903), pp. 984-986, Mill No. 42, Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Not given: the copper in the ore, water per ton. Picture drawn by Youblob.
Advanced
1 day
Instructions
1
1
Sort the ore
Sort the ore
In the mine, pick the ore by hand into rich ore (straight to the smelter), hard concentrating ore and soft concentrating ore. The ore holds chalcocite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, enargite and blende in quartz and decomposed feldspar; the aim is to save the copper and silver without the zinc.
Materials for this step:
Copper Sulphide Ore100 tons2
2
Screen and pick
Screen and pick
Pass each kind over vibrating grizzlies with 1 in spaces; hand-pick the oversize for rich ore. Screen the undersize in trommels: 6.35 mm round holes for hard ore; 12.7 mm then 6.35 mm for soft ore.
Tools needed:
Classifier Sieve
Trommel3
3
Crush under steam stamps
Crush under steam stamps
Crush the coarse hard ore under steam stamps with screens of 4.76 x 9.52 mm slots, the soft ore under stamps with 12.7 mm round holes. Richards notes that steam stamps were later given up for these ores.
Tools needed:
Stamp Mill
Water4
4
Classify and jig
Classify and jig
Jig the coarse soft ore on 1-sieve Harz jigs. Send all fine ore to hydraulic classifiers with three spigots; each spigot feeds its own row of 2-sieve Collom jigs. The heavy concentrate is drawn from the jigs; middlings are crushed again.
Tools needed:
Ore Jig
Hydraulic ClassifierWater5
5
Table the slimes and collect
Table the slimes and collect
Run the classifier overflow over convex revolving slime tables. Gather all concentrates and settlings for the smelter: 12 to 20 % copper, 50 to 75 tons from 100 tons of ore. Tailings keep 1 1/4 to 2 % copper.
Tools needed:
Revolving Slime Table
Settling TankMaterials
1- 100 tonsPlaceholder
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