Process-Mineralogy-Guided Flotation for Cu-Co Recovery: A Case Study of DRC Copper–Cobalt Sulfide Ore

Process mineralogy is an important technique to evaluate the economic value of ore, and it also has an important guiding role in flotation. Copper–cobalt sulfide ore, a significant source of copper and cobalt metals, is abundant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In this paper, DRC copper–cobalt sulfide ore is employed to validate process mineralogy guidance for flotation, thereby enhancing Cu-Co recovery. Process mineralogy results indicate that the economically valuable metals in copper–cobalt sulfide ore are Cu and Co. Cu is predominantly deposited in chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite, and carrollite, while Co is primarily found in carrollite. However, a part of the chalcopyrite and carrollite is closely embedded with other minerals, which complicates mineral dissociation and poses challenges for the efficient recovery of Cu and Co. Guided by process mineralogy results, conditional, open-circuit, and locked-cycle experiments were conducted to explore the feasibility of flotation recovery for Cu and Co. The results show that through flotation, the grade of Cu/Co can be increased from 1.27%/0.56% to 24.43%/9.78%, and the recovery of Cu/Co reached 94.47%/86.35%, which is significantly better than conventional flotation without the guidance of process mineralogy. This case is of great significance for process-mineralogy-guided flotation for the efficient recovery of Cu-Co in the DRC.