The Kamoa-Kakula joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin Mining and the DRC government, has awarded Glencore Technology a contract for the supply of Jameson flotation cells for Phase 2 of the project (3.8 Mt/y to 7.6 Mt/y). It covers the supply of a model E4232/10 Jameson Cell in a high grade cleaner duty and a model B4500/12 in a scavenger re-cleaner duty. Phase 2 will be identical to Phase 1 where Glencore Technology has already supplied a model E4232/10 and a model B4500/12.

The milling circuit incorporates two stages of ball milling in series in closed circuit with cyclone clusters for further size reduction and classification to a target grind size of 80% passing 53 micrometres (µm). The milled slurry is pumped to the rougher and scavenger flotation circuit where the high-grade, or fast-floating rougher concentrate, and medium-grade, or slow-floating scavenger concentrate, are separated for further upgrading. The rougher concentrate is upgraded in the low entrainment high-grade cleaner stage with the E4232/10 Jameson Cell to produce a high-grade concentrate.

The medium-grade or scavenger concentrate together with the tailings from the high-grade cleaner stage and the recycled scavenger recleaner tailings are combined and further upgraded in the scavenger cleaner circuit. The concentrate produced from the scavenger cleaner circuit, representing roughly 12% of the mill feed, is re-ground to a P80 of 10 µm prior to final cleaning with the B4500/12 Jameson Cell in the low entrainment scavenger recleaner stage.