Arsenic removal with heat treatment - Magnetic separation from dirty copper conc

Removal arsenic from dirty (arsenic containing) copper concentrate is one of the most important issues for copper processing. Currently for removal of arsenic copper concentrate roasting is applied, but this method is not good for environment. As alternative method, this research applied low temperature heat treatment (less than 400°C) followed by magnetic separation. Primary copper sulfide minerals such as chalcopyrite and bornite can make magnetic property whereas arsenic containing copper minerals such as enargite and tennantite kept non-magnetic property. Magnetic separation after these heat treatments can separate primary copper minerals as magnetic product and arsenic containing copper minerals as non-magnetic minerals. Magnetic separation has been carried out and results shows that arsenic removal from copper concentrate can be achieved with high separation efficiency.