Spontaneous combustion tendency of fresh and pre-oxidized sulfide ores

Three representative sulfide ore samples were collected from typical metal mines,and their corresponding pre-oxidized products were obtained under nature environment.The thermal behaviors of each sample at heating rates of 5,10,15 and 20 °C/min in air flow from ambient temperature to 800 °C were studied by simultaneous thermal analysis and the TG/DSC curves before and after the pre-oxidation were compared.By the peak temperature of DTG curves,the whole reaction process for each sample was divided into different stages,and the apparent activation energies were calculated by the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method.The results show that the reaction process of each sample after pre-oxidation is more complex,with quicker reaction rates,fewer heat production quantities,and higher or lower ignition-points.The apparent activation energies decrease from 364.017-474.228 kJ/mol to 244.523- 333.161 kJ/mol.Therefore,sulfide ores are more susceptible to spontaneous combustion after the pre-oxidation.