Industrias Peoles, S A de C V (Peoles) in Mexico, is a major silver producer. The Peoles mining division has eight operations and the flotation process in seven of them to concentrate the metal and mineral values. Common metal and mineral values are: metallic gold and silver; gold-silver alloy (electrum); silver sulfide minerals (acanthite, pyrargyrite, freibergite, proustite); lead sulfide (galena); zinc sulfide (sphalerite); and copper sulfides (chalcopyrite and bornite).
This paper aims to share Peoles's mineralogical and metallurgical information on the seven operations where the flotation process is used. Some basic conclusions are drawn from this analysis.
Some of the information presented includes: types of orebodies, concentration processes, concentrator throughputs, head grades, concentrate grades and recoveries. Importantly, grind size and liberation values for the main mineral species are presented along with the relationships between sphalerite liberation and its recovery, and galena liberation and its recovery. Also included are three mineralogical case studies:
maximisation of silver recovery at the Fresnillo mine producing a silver-zinc concentrate;
options to improve gold recovery at the Tizapa mine; and
sphalerite iron content for the different orebodies.