What are ore, concentrate, and tailings

Ore that has not undergone beneficiation or other processing is referred to as raw ore. While a small portion of raw ore can be used directly, the majority must undergo beneficiation or other processing before it can be utilised.

During the mining process, raw ore is first crushed and ground before undergoing primary flotation, also known as roughing, which produces rough concentrate and rough tailings.

The rough tailings are then subjected to flotation, known as scavenging, producing scavenged concentrate and scavenged tailings.

The rough concentrate is then subjected to flotation, known as selective flotation, producing selective concentrate and selective tailings.

After the initial selection of ore, such as flotation, re-selection, or magnetic separation, the selected portion containing water-bearing gangue or surrounding rock yields a product with a higher grade than the raw ore, known as rough concentrate, which generally does not meet the quality requirements for concentrate. This process is called rough selection. The rough concentrate is re-selected to obtain qualified concentrate, a process known as selective operation. Sometimes the rough concentrate requires multiple selective operations to obtain qualified concentrate, with the operations sequentially referred to as first selective, second selective, and third selective.  

Generally, rough tailings cannot be discarded as final tailings and often require further processing. This operation is called scavenging. To improve metal recovery rates, multiple scavenging operations may be required to obtain the final tailings.

After mineral processing, most gangue and impurities are removed, and the product rich in useful minerals is called concentrate. Concentrate is the final product of a mineral processing plant and is sometimes referred to as final concentrate, typically used as raw material for smelting. Ultimately, only when the main components and impurity content of the concentrate meet the standards can it be considered qualified concentrate.

For concentrate, middlings, and tailings, each flotation process results in middlings and tailings.

After selection and processing, the primary components of the original ore are concentrated in the concentrate, while secondary components of the ore or other associated metals are recovered through comprehensive treatment. Therefore, the remaining product contains very low levels of useful components and is referred to as tailings or final tailings. It should be noted that tailings still contain useful components, but due to current technological limitations, extraction is difficult. However, they may become reusable raw materials in the future. Therefore, tailings are typically stored in tailings ponds.

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