Processing
Our Sorsk facilities processed approximately 8.4 million tonnes of ore in 2009. Our Zhireken facilities processed approximately 3.6 million tonnes of ore in 2009. The following is an illustration on the production process.
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Crushing
Coarse ore crushing
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Secondary and fine ore crushing
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Screen bin section for ore grading and sizing (Ore adequately crushed)
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Milling
Crushed ore is grounded using various sizes of grate-discharge and central-discharge ball mills
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Classifiers separate milled ore into either product ready for further processing or oversized material, which is returned for further grinding.
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Flotation
Molybdenum floats to the top in frothy bubbles and the copper (a by-product of molybdenum production process) sinks
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Bubbles are skimmed, leaving only the molybdenum for further cleaning. This leads to a high quality molybdenum concentrate. Copper concentrate is produced by a similar flotation method using different reagents.
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Filtration and drying
Water is removed to 10-12% water content. The filter cake is then dried in an electrical kiln at 250 degrees Celcius. (Molybdenum §ãoncentrate meeting the §Ûuality requirements of GOST 212-76)
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Molybdenum concentrate, meeting the quality requirements of GOST 212-76, is packed into containers and taken to the ferromolybdenum processing facilities. Copper concentrate is also filtered and dried in a similar process and then bagged and shipped to market.
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