Mineral Processing Technology Forges A New Shape For The Future - Basic Science

Many important contributions to the more fundamental aspects of mineral processing have been made this past year. Mular1 researched the flotation characteristics of pure zinc oxide and also samples that had been doped with Al+++ and Cu++. Correlation of the response of pure zinc oxide to oleate flotation with a calculated zpc (from solution equilibrium) suggests that adsorption of oleate ion is coulombic in nature. Doping the sample with Al+++ (which will make the ZnO more n-type) had a marked effect on the maximum value of pH at which 50% recovery was obtained at constant collector addition. That is, when 0.5 mole percent Al+++ was added, the pH for 50% recovery was reduced by about four units. Treatment with Cu++ was found to have little effect on the flotation response of zinc oxide, even for additions of one mole percent. Since the zero points of charge of the Al+++ doped powders were not measured, it was not possible to correlate flotation data of these samples directly with charge phenomena.