Chair of Non-Ferrous Metals' Metallurgy, Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia:

N. V. Marchenko, Assistant Professor
T. V. Alekseeva, Senior Lecturer
A. V. Chubarov, Assistant Professor, e-mail: ChubarovAV@hotmail.com

Low speed of sedimentation and filtration of pulps after zinc matte leaching is one of major disadvantages of hydrometallurgical technologies for zinc concentrates' treatment. This problem may be solved by usage of different flocculants for solid particles' thickening. Searching for more efficient flocculants is an urgent task because of current high reagent consumption (polyacrylamide) for this process at metallurgical factories. Influence of different flocculants on pulp thickening process after leaching of zinc matte by sulfate acidic solutions was investigated, using moving-boundary method. Duration of solid particles' deposition was found. The deposition rate was calculated together with productivity of thickening equipment. Dependence of process parameters from flocculants consumption was determined together with their concentration and pulp temperature. There was found that flocculant Magnafloc E-010 is the most efficient flocculant for zinc production acidic pulp. In this case, reagent consumption may be decreased to 250–100 g/t. As a result of investigation of the temperature effect, there was established that optimum temperature for zinc pulp thickening process is 70–80 ^оC. Usage of this flocculant allows to improve the performance of thickening process: increasing of particles' deposition rate and purity of clarified solution. Other flocculants, such as Magnafloc 25, 26, 27, Praestol 2515, Superflock and Zetag 8120, are not efficient for this process under the tested conditions. Efficiency of thickening, using Magnafloc E-010, is also increased. At the same time, the amount of liquid phase in the condensed product is reduced to 40–45 %.

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