Kinetics of barite reduction from refractory barite-sulphide ore

Abstract

Refractory sulphide-barite ore was reduced with carbon in order to release lead, zinc, and copper sulphide from barite-pyrite base. Mineralogical investigations showed that due to the complex structural-textural relationships of lead, copper and zinc minerals with gangue minerals, it is not possible to enrich the ore using the conventional methods of mineral processing. The influence of temperature and time was studied to optimize the conditions, and to determine the kinetics of the barite reduction. The maximum removal of barite from ore was 96.7% at 900oC after 180 min. Chemically controlled kinetic model showed the best compliance with the experimental data. An activation energy of 142 kJ/mol was found.