Mineral Processing
The mined ore is crushed and milled before the flotation process to desired grain size. Crushing is done in two phases followed by milling in the bar and ball mills. The flotation process is conducted in the stages. The first stage is the silver-gold-lead flotation which is followed by the zinc-silver flotation and pyrite flotation stages. Each flotation stage consists of several steps. Residue of the flotation is pumped as a slurry to the tailings management facility (TMF) where material is deposited and water circulated back to the flotation process.
The final products of the processing are:
1. Silver-gold-lead (Ag-Au-Pb) concentrate
2. Zinc-silver (Zn-Ag) concentrate
3. Pyrite-silver (FeS2-Ag)- concentrate.
Silver-gold-lead concentrate is transported in the containers to smelter for further processing and zinc-silver concentrate is trucked to customer's facilty. Currently, pyrite-silver concentrate is stored for possible utilisation.