As ore grades constantly decline, more copper tailings, which still contain a considerable amount of unrecovered copper, are expected to be produced as a byproduct of froth flotation. This research reveals the occurrence mechanism of copper minerals in typical copper sulfide tailings using quantitative mineral liberation analysis (MLA) integrated with scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). A comprehensive mineralogical characterization was carried out, and the results showed that almost all copper minerals were highly disseminated within coarse gangue particles, except for 9.2wt% chalcopyrite that occurred in the 160–180 µm size fraction. The predominant copper-bearing mineral was chalcopyrite, which was closely intergrown with orthoclase and muscovite rather than quartz. The flotation tailings sample still contained 3.28wt% liberated chalcopyrite and 3.13wt% liberated bornite because of their extremely fine granularity. The SEM-EDS analysis further demonstrated that copper minerals mainly occurred as fine dispersed and fully enclosed structures in gangue minerals. The information obtained from this research could offer useful references for recovering residual copper from flotation tailings.

随着矿石品位不断下降，预计将产生更多的铜尾矿，其中仍含有大量未回收的铜，作为泡沫浮选的副产品。本研究采用定量矿物释放分析 (MLA) 结合扫描电子显微镜-能量色散谱 (SEM-EDS)，揭示了典型硫化铜尾矿中铜矿物的赋存机制。进行了全面的矿物学表征，结果表明，除了 9.2wt% 的黄铜矿出现在 160-180 µm 尺寸部分外，几乎所有铜矿物都高度浸染在粗脉石颗粒中。主要的含铜矿物是黄铜矿，与正长石和白云母紧密共生，而不是石英。浮选尾矿样品仍含有 3.28wt% 游离黄铜矿和 3.13wt% 游离斑铜矿，因为它们的粒度极细。SEM-EDS分析进一步表明，铜矿物在脉石矿物中主要以微细分散和完全封闭的结构形式存在。本研究获得的信息可为从浮选尾矿中回收残留铜提供有用的参考。