| abstract |
The present invention relates to a process for recovering valuable metals from a sulphide ore, comprising steps of milling ore in a primary mill (14) to a size of about 40 cm and less and passing through the mill. ore milled through one or more of the following pre-enrichment operations, such as bulk sorting (16) and sieving (20), followed by coarse flotation (46/50), or gravity separation or a magnetic separation. A waste stream (54) from the pre-enrichment operation (s) having a particle size greater than 100 μm is stacked (26) and heap leached. This integrated process uses the pre-enrichment techniques best suited to the characteristics of a particular ore and simultaneously generates, during pre-enrichment, a low-quality flow that gives rise to significantly higher recovery rates than can be obtained by leaching into normal heaps of low quality effluents from ores. |