MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF FLOTATION PROCESS FOR NORTH WAZIRISTAN COPPER

Abstract

The objectives of this research are to analyze empirically the effects of different explanatory variables on recovery and grade of copper from ore found in North Waziristan and to develop mathematical models for the enrichment of copper in Pakistan. This study is based on the primary data from flotation process experiment for enrichment of copper. Seven variables were studied in experiments. The variable were type and dosage of collector (X1g/ton) pH (X2), depressant sodium cyanide (X3 g/ton) sulfidizer Na2S(X4g/ton), frother dosage (X5 g/ton), pulp density (X6 w/v) and conditioning time (X7 minute) and consists of 31 observations. Flotation process parameters were studied to concentrate the copper content of chalocopyrite the North Waziristan copper ore. Mathematical models were developed using various model selection procedures. Regression parameters were estimated by applying Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method for regression analysis and adopted general to simple modeling procedure. In this study we found that the variables X1, X3, X4 and X6 of equation (5.57) are statistically significant and concluded that an increase in these variables there is increase in recovery of copper. Maximum grade were obtained from equation (6.65) the combined significance variable X1, X3, and X7.