LIANG Dong-yun1,2, QIU Xian-yang1,2*, HU Zhen1,2, LI Bo1,2, HONG Qiu-yang1,2
(1.State Key Laboratory of Rare Metals Separation and Comprehensive Utilization, Guangzhou 510650, China；
2.Institute of Resources Comprehensive Utilization, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China)
Abstract: Silver in tin polymetallic ore has unique mineralogical feature. There are about 90% of the silver occurs in copper minerals dominated by tetrahedrite on Ag-Sn polymetallic ore in Inner Mongolia. In this paper, the mineralogical characteristics of tetrahedrite in the ore and their relationship with mineral processing are studied. The results indicate that the skeleton crystal structure of tetrahedrite has a poor compact structure and a large capacity of similarity between elements, which makes it a natural aggregation of silver ions. The recovery of copper in the ore restricts the recovery of silver. Because of there are a lot of Cu+,Cu2+,Ag+,Zn2+,Fe2+,Sb3+, As3+,S2-in tetrahedrite crystal, compared with other mineral, the ions of tetrahedrite are more easy to be gone out from the crystal structure in flotation system. These ions will increase the complicacy of ore pulp and will make the flotability of tetrahedrite is poor, along with the ions oxide and hydration. Cu-preferential flotation is beneficial to improve the copper（silver）recovery.
Keywords: Ag-Sn polymetallic ore; deportment of Silver; tetrahedrite; skeleton crystal structure; Cu-preferential flotation
ACTA MINERALOGICA SINICA Vol. 40, No.6, 2020, page 695-700
