Patent ID: 7219804

Claim:
A method for processing a mineral material containing nonferrous base metal, at least a portion of the nonferrous base metal being soluble nonferrous base metal, the method comprising flotation processing of the mineral material, the flotation processing comprising: passing flotation gas through a slurry comprising particles of the mineral material slurried in a flotation liquid, a first portion of the particles rising with the flotation gas through the flotation liquid and being collected in a flotation concentrate enriched in the nonferrous base metal relative to the mineral material, a second portion of the particles being collected as a flotation tail that is depleted in the nonferrous base metal relative to the mineral material, the flotation gas comprising no more than 15 percent oxygen gas; dissolving from the mineral material and into the flotation liquid at least a majority of the soluble nonferrous base metal; and precipitating in the form of a floatable precipitate at least a majority of the soluble nonferrous base metal dissolved during the dissolving; and collecting at least a majority of the floatable precipitate in the flotation concentrate, wherein the flotation concentrate is enriched in and the flotation tail is depleted in the soluble nonferrous base metal relative to the mineral material.