RESEARCH ARTICLE

The effect of pH, solid content, water chemistry and ore mineralogy on the galvanic interactions between chalcopyrite and pyrite and steel balls

  • Asghar Azizi , 1 ,
  • Seid Ziaoddin Shafaei 2 ,
  • Mohammad Noaparast 2 ,
  • Mohammad Karamoozian 1
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  • 1. Department of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood 36199-95161, Iran
  • 2. School of Mining Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Received date: 05 Jun 2013

Accepted date: 27 Sep 2013

Published date: 05 Dec 2013

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

The role of pH, solid content, water chemistry and ore mineralogy on the galvanic interactions between chalcopyrite and pyrite and low alloy steel balls were investigated in the grinding of Sarcheshmeh porphyry copper sulfide ore. All these factors strongly affect the galvanic current between the minerals and the steel during the grinding process. The galvanic current density decreased as the solution pH and percent solids increased. In addition, changing the water in the ball mill from tap to distilled water reduced the galvanic current between the minerals and the balls. Potentiodynamic polarization curves showed that pyrite and chalcopyrite demonstrated typical active-passive-transpassive anodic behavior in the grinding of copper ore. However, the nature of their transitions from the active to the passive state differed. This behavior was not seen in the grinding of pure minerals. In addition, an EDTA extraction technique was employed to quantify the amount of oxidized iron in the mill discharge. The amount of extractable iron was influenced by the same experimental factors and in the same way as the galvanic current.

Cite this article

Asghar Azizi , Seid Ziaoddin Shafaei , Mohammad Noaparast , Mohammad Karamoozian . The effect of pH, solid content, water chemistry and ore mineralogy on the galvanic interactions between chalcopyrite and pyrite and steel balls[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2013 , 7(4) : 464 -471 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-013-1356-z

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Sarcheshmeh copper mine (Research and development division) funded by National Iranian copper Company. The authors are gratefully for the financial support of this research by the Sarcheshmeh copper mine.
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