A copper-lead-zinc polymetallic sulfide ore, being characterized by complex dissemination of main minerals and intimate intergrowth of valuable minerals and gangue, was taken for study. In an experiment, the raw ore grading 0.21% Cu, 2.37% Pb and 3.01% Zn was treated with a weak-alkali process, consisting of Cu-Pb bulk flotation, Cu/Pb separation and Zn flotation. With A22 as a copper-lead bulk flotation collector, TZ01 and zinc sulphate as depressants of zinc and sulfur minerals, CZ08 as a zinc flotation collector, sodium sulfite and CMC as depressants for Cu/Pb separation, a copper concentrate grading 22.09% Cu at 70.48% recovery, a lead concentrate grading 59.48% Pb at 89.35% recovery, and a zinc concentrate grading 45.00% Zn at 86.96% recovery were yielded.

Flotation tests were conducted for a low-grade copper-nickel sulfide ore with high content of mud and magnesium oxide from Xinjiang. Using sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and sodium silicate as a combined inhibitor, butyl xanthoxanthate and butyl ammonium black as a combined collector, a closed-circuit test with a flowsheet consisting of a Cu-Ni bulk flotation and a Cu/Ni separation produced a copper concentrate grading 25.11% Cu at 79.90% recovery, with MgO content of 2.02%, as well as a nickel concentrate grading 6.98% Ni at 75.01% recovery, with MgO content of 5.32%. It is concluded that effective recovery and separation of copper and nickel can be actualized.

A low-grade manganese carbonate ore in Tongren of Guizhou Province has complicated mineral compositions, with a higher content of clay mineral illite (19.30%). In order to improve the mineral dressing index of this type of manganese ore resources, magnetic separation experiments was performed for it by using a high gradient magnetic separator. In the experiment, the mineral after pre-desliming was ground by a ball mill to a grinding fineness of -75 μm 69.62%. Then, it was subjected to a magnetic separation process consisting of one roughing and two scavenging, resulting in the final manganese carbonate concentrate grading 19.39% Mn at 83.66% recovery, with yield of 52.81%. The experiment results are of great significance for reducing the discharge of electrolytic manganese slag in Tongren.

An experimental study on mineral processing was carried out for the lean magnetite in M1033 Iron Ore from JISCO. After being crushed with high pressure grinding mill, the ore with a fineness of -0.030 mm 85% was processed using a magnetic separator with the magnetic field strength of 180~220 mT, resulting in an iron concentrate grading 65.18% TFe, with SiO₂ content of 5.21% and Fe metal recovery of 73.20%.

Magnetic separation tests were carried out by adopting a pulsating high gradient magnetic separators (HGMS) for low-grade manganese rhodochrosite ores from Yingjiang County of Yunnan Province, with more than 50% passing size of the raw ore finer than -0.019 mm, TMn grade of 6.72% and manganese carbonate content of 84.97%. Based on the laboratory test applying a SLon-100 type cyclic pulsating HGMS, a pilot test was conducted with a SLon-500 type vertical ring pulsating HGMS, by adopting an optimized processing flowsheet consisting of one roughing, one scavenging and a cleaning process of the scavenging concentrate, a manganese concentrate was produced with TMn grade and recovery of 16.77% and 87.61%, respectively.

Processing parameters were optimized to improve the quality of a vanadium-titanium iron concentrate from Panzhihua-Xichang region. A process flowsheet of staged grinding followed by mineral separation was adopted, consisting of demagnetization, pre-classification with 0.074 mm fine screen, regrinding of +0.074 mm range particles to a fineness of -0.074 mm 92.85% followed by magnetic separation, and direct magnetic separation of -0.074 mm range particles. It is shown that the obtained iron concentrate can have its TFe grade upgraded by 3.19 percentage points, and the total content of SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and MgO therein reduced by 3.91 percentage points.

Experimental study on flocculation sedimentation was carried out in a laboratory for the lead processing tailings from a lead-zinc mine, and the flocculant type, flocculant dosage and feed concentration were all investigated. Then, the selected flocculant was applied into a lead-zinc-sulfur flotation. The results show that the anionic PAM flocculant AX868 presents a better sedimentation effect, and its addition into the flotation system leads to the obtained flotation indicators equivalent to those by using clear water. It is found that an addition of 20 g/t AX868 into the thickener with a diameter of 36 m can meet the sedimentation requirements in industrial production.

Tests were conducted to compare the performance of detergent FD-602 and nitric acid in cleaning the copper concentrate ceramic filter plate in Tonglushan Mine in Hubei Province. The results show that after being cleaned with FD-602, the ceramic filter plate has cleaner surface and its filter cake also presents uniform adsorption during filtration. After being cleaned using FD-602 and nitric acid, the ceramic filter can produce 6.63 t/h and 5.85 t/h filter cakes on average, with average moisture of 11.21% and 11.58%, respectively. Every ton of filter cake consumes 0.16 kg and 1.78 kg detergent, with the cost of 6.4 yuan and 5.696 yuan, respectively. When the cleaning water collected from the FD-602 cleaning process mixed with domestic water at a ratio of 1∶5 is returned to flotation process, it is shown that there is no obvious influence brought to the flotation performance.

As for a kind of low-calcium and low-magnesium stone coal featuring low alkalinity and high content of silica, a process of sulfuric acid curing followed by water leaching was adopted in an experiment, and the effects of grain size, sulfuric acid dosing, curing temperature and curing time on vanadium leaching were investigated. The results show that the leaching rate of vanadium reaches 88.6% when the raw ore with grain size of -0.15 mm was cured at 120 ℃ for 8.5 h by adding sulfuric acid at 20%, and then water leaching at the room temperature for 2 h with liquid and solid at a ratio of 2∶1. During the curing process, the mica structure with the locked vanadium therein is effectively dissociated and soluble vanadium is released. It is shown that the leaching solution has a lower content of silicon (0.08 g/L), significantly reduced compared to the process of direct acid leaching or the process of roasting plus acid leaching, which is beneficial to the subsequent extraction process.

A typical metal mine with a smelter in Hunan Province was taken as an example, and 22 key factors affecting the environmental risk diffusion path of heavy metal pollution area were chosen based on data crawling and on-site case investigation, as well as systematical sorting. Nemerow integrated pollution index (NIPI) of soil was calculated using Nemerow pollution index method, and then was used to aid the identification of key factors. Results show that atmospheric deposition and soil permeability are selected as the environmental risk diffusion path for heavy metal pollution of soil based on the analytic hierarchy process, and the key factors for environmental risk diffusion include distance from pollution source, PM₁₀ content in air, hard cover on ground surface, anti-seepage measures, soil pH value and soil organic matter (SOM) content. It is found that the NIPI of the soil is positively correlated to soil pH value, SOM, PM₁₀, but negatively correlated to the distance from pollution source, hard cover on soil surface and anti-seepage measures. The correlation coefficient fits well with the factor weight (R²=0.63).