Thus, the results confirm that the NovaCell™ can upgrade copper minerals across all size fractions for a range of ore bodies. Given the selective recovery in all size fractions, the NovaCell™ offers a simplified process flowsheet with no up-front deslime or separate fines flotation circuits required. Case Study 2: NovaCell CPF vs Competitor CPF on deslimed tailings material The CPF technology implemented at site is an elutriation-type requiring three stages of hydrocyclones to deslime the feed prior to treatment in the CPF device. The simplified process flow diagram of the circuit is shown in ¡Error! No se encuentra el origen de la referencia.¡Error! No se encuentra el origen de la referencia.. In this configuration, the CPF only treats the coarse (+53 µm) fraction of the rougher tails stream although some -53 µm material will still be present due to separation inefficiency. As part of the CPF assessment, the site opted to benchmark the NovaCell™ against the elutriation-type CPF at lab scale. Prior to commissioning the CPF circuit, a sample of rougher tails was taken from the plant and wet-screened at 53 µm using a vibrating sieve to simulate the deslime stage in the plant. The deslime operation removed 59% of the mass containing 43% of the copper, representing the stream that would bypass the CPF and be sent to the tailings thickener. Size analysis showed that the deslimed material had a P80 of 185 µm and a head grade of 0.12% Cu. Notably, 13% of the deslimed sample mass was below 53 µm due to separation inefficiency. The freshly deslimed material was tested in the on-site metallurgical laboratory using a lab scale elutriation-type CPF device which obtained 65% copper recovery with a mass pull of 25%. Collected samples of the original rougher tails were transported to an external laboratory for benchmarking against the NovaCell™. A portion of the rougher tails sample was wet screened at the external laboratory to replicate the deslimed sample used in the on-site testing. There was a small variation in the produced sample having a P80 of 175 µm and head grade of 0.11% Cu. In this case, a slightly better separation efficiency was observed with 9% of the feed mass being below 53 µm. The deslime process removed 63% of the mass containing 46% of the copper. The deslimed rougher tails sample was fed to the lab scale NovaCell™ using the client-specified reagent types and dosage rates. Samples of the NovaCell™ concentrate and tailing were collected and analyzed on a size-by-size basis with the results summarized in ¡Error! No se encuentra el origen de la referencia.. Table 5 – Feed distribution and NovaCell™ recovery for the deslimed rougher tails Particle Size (µm) Feed Distribution NovaCellTM Recovery Tails Mass Copper Mass Copper Mass Copper -710 +300 1% 1% 12% 62% 88% 38% -300 +212 7% 6% 19% 80% 81% 20% -212 +106 49% 49% 9% 69% 91% 31% -106 +53 35% 32% 7% 65% 93% 35% -53 9% 12% 5% 56% 95% 44% Total 100% 100% 9% 67% 92% 33%
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