Minerals Beneficiation - Metal Ion Activation in Xanthate Flotation of Quartz

Quartz cannot be floated with potassium amyl xanthate as collector at any pH. Complete flotation is achieved with certain minimal additions of amyl xanthate and Pb from pH 5.8 to 8.5 and with amyl xanthate and Zn from pH 7.5 to 8.1. The active species of these metal ions responsible for activation are shown to be PbOH and ZnOH No flotation was effected when Cu and Mg were added as activators. Previous work1,2,3,4,5,6,7 has shown that quartz may be floated in the presence of sulfonate or soap when the following two criteria are met: 1) some portion of the added metal ion has hydro-lyzed to its first hydroxy complex, and 2) a precipitate of the metal-collector has formed. Since sulfonate and soap, two substantially different anionic collectors, conform to these criteria, this phenomenon may well be expected to be of a general nature. In this view then, it would appear that any anionic collector, including xanthates, should also float quartz when these two criteria are met. The object of this paper is to demonstrate the conditions under which quartz will respond to flotation in the presence of potassium amyl xanthate. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES Quartz was prepared by leaching the sized sample (48 x 150 mesh) with HC1 until no iron could be detected in the leach liquor. Conductivity water, made by passing distilled water through an ion exchange column, was used in the investigation. Potassium amyl xanthate was selected as collector. Purification of this reagent was effected with the following method: 1) a laboratory sample of potassium amyl xanthate was dissolved to saturation in hot ethyl alcohol and filtered several times while still hot, 2) the filtrate was cooled, during which time potassium amyl xanthate crystallized out of solution; the xanthate was then separated from the solution by filtration, 3) the amyl xanthate was dissolved in fresh hot ethyl alcohol and filtered, 4) step (2) was repeated, 5) the crystalline potassium amyl xanthate was washed with ethyl ether five times, and 6) the xanthate was dried for 24 hours under continuous vacuum. Inorganic impurities are insoluble in hot ethyl alcohol whereas dixanthogen is soluble in ethyl ether. Five-gram charges of 48x150 mesh quartz were conditioned for 3 min in 125 cc of solution containing the reagents and were floated with the small-scale cell and procedure described in previous papers.478 Reagent grade HCl and NaOH were used for pH adjustment, while reagent n-amyl alcohol was added as frother. Frother addition is necessary with this technique, but it should be mentioned that data, similar to those shown in Fig. 2 for 1 x10-4 mole per liter Pb++ and 1 X 10-4 mole per liter AX-, were also obtained with a Hallimond cell in the absence of frother. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Clean quartz could not be floated with amyl xanthate at any pH. Flotation was achieved under certain conditions, however, when various metal ions were added to the system. The activating ions used were lead, zinc, copper and magnesium, added as reagent grade chloride salts. Lead as Activator: The effect of Pb++ as activator was examined at five different additions of amyl xanthate (Fig. 1, 2 and 3). When 1x 10-5 mole per liter xanthate was added in the presence of 1 x 10"4 mole per liter Pb ++, no flotation was obtained at pH 6.5 or below, while a recovery of about 60% was effected at pH 7. When the pH was increased to 7.8, no flotation was again obtained, Complete depression was noted from pH 7.8 to about 10, at which point a recovery of about 30% was achieved. At about pH 11, the precipitate of lead amyl xanthate which was present below this pH dissolved and complete depression occurred. When 2.5x 10-5 mole per liter xanthate was added with the same lead addition, no flotation was obtained at pH 5.8 and below, whereas a recovery of