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By Güven Önal, Zeki Dogan, Neset Acarkan

In this study, it was aimed to produce glass sand with less than 0.15% Fe2O3 for window glass manufacture and glass ware grade with less than 0.05% Fe2O3 from Yalõköy sand dunes having 0.48% Fe2O3. In order to reduce the iron content of the Yalõköy sand dune, magnetic separation, flotation, scrubbing, H2SO4 leaching and drying were used. The optimum iron removal was achieved by H2SO4 baking at 150oC and 8 kg/t acid consumption. In this way, sand concentrate was obtained with 0.04% Fe2O3 and sand recovery 95%.

Jan 1, 2003

By Chen Jianhua, Shen Zhenchang, Zhang Ming, Chen Feifei

"With flotation cells scale-up, the performance of flotation cells is increasingly variated for short-coming and dead zones existing. The residence time distribution which shows the movement of tracers can assess the unexpected flows such as short circuit and dead zone in a flotation cell. In this paper, the residence time distribution of pilot flotation cell is investigated with CFD simulation. Based on the theoretical model, the short-coming probability and dead zone probability are quantitative. The ideal average residence time is similar with the actual average residence time. The mixing effect of the flotation cell approaches the ideal continuous stirred tank reactor. The operating parameters such as speed and feed velocity have complicated influence on residence time distribution. The research would be helpful to understanding flow in flotation cell and improving performances of flotation cell.INTRODUCTIONFroth flotation is a method which purifies minerals according to difference of physical and chemical surface characters of different mineral particles (Shen, Z., Chen J, 2012). Flotation cell is a key equipment for froth flotation method. The flotation cell performances have great influences on flotation index.It is difficult to evaluate flotation cell how to improve flotation procedure to complexity.The main flotation cell performances are aeration volume, air dispersion, solid suspension and residence time distribution, etc (Shen, Z., Lu, S., 2008). Residence time distribution is an important fluid hydrodynamics which could reveal the flow of pulp, mixing of particles and air bubbles. In the flotation cell, the ideal average residence time of pulp could obtain easily. But the fluid differential units would be different flow paths. The residence time of the fluid differential units is variation and would be longer or less than the average residence time. The residence time distribution would reveal the mixing effect and predict the not ideal flow in the flotation cell such as shorting cutting, dead zone, etc. As we know, the shorting cutting and dead zone would be decreased the real flotation time and it is disadvantage to better flotation effect, especially for large flotation cell. It is impossible to eliminate the not ideal flow totally. It is very important to reveal and decrease the shorting cutting and dead zone probability in the flotation cell."

Jan 1, 2018

By S. S. Yu

In this paper, the producing process of using V2O3 as raw material to obtain vanadium nitride was analyzed through the means of thermodynamic. The analysis shows that conversion follows the principle of reduction step by step in the conversion process of V2O3. The temperature of the reaction system has prominent influence on the nitrogen content of products, and the reaction is very sensitive to temperature. As raising temperature, the fine grain structure of the nitrides is more evident, and the grain size of nitrides increases. At 1703K, the nitrogen content of the products tended to be constant after soaking over 3 hours.

Jan 1, 2014

By Chen Jianhua, Shen Zhenchang, Zhang Ming, Chen Feifei

"With flotation cells scale-up, the performance of flotation cells is increasingly variated for short-coming and dead zones existing. The residence time distribution which shows the movement of tracers can assess the unexpected flows such as short circuit and dead zone in a flotation cell. In this paper, the residence time distribution of pilot flotation cell is investigated with CFD simulation. Based on the theoretical model, the short-coming probability and dead zone probability are quantitative. The ideal average residence time is similar with the actual average residence time. The mixing effect of the flotation cell approaches the ideal continuous stirred tank reactor. The operating parameters such as speed and feed velocity have complicated influence on residence time distribution. The research would be helpful to understanding flow in flotation cell and improving performances of flotation cell.INTRODUCTION Froth flotation is a method which purifies minerals according to difference of physical and chemical surface characters of different mineral particles (Shen, Z., Chen J, 2012). Flotation cell is a key equipment for froth flotation method. The flotation cell performances have great influences on flotation index.It is difficult to evaluate flotation cell how to improve flotation procedure to complexity. The main flotation cell performances are aeration volume, air dispersion, solid suspension and residence time distribution, etc (Shen, Z., Lu, S., 2008). Residence time distribution is an important fluid hydrodynamics which could reveal the flow of pulp, mixing of particles and air bubbles. In the flotation cell, the ideal average residence time of pulp could obtain easily. But the fluid differential units would be different flow paths. The residence time of the fluid differential units is variation and would be longer or less than the average residence time. The residence time distribution would reveal the mixing effect and predict the not ideal flow in the flotation cell such as shorting cutting, dead zone, etc. As we know, the shorting cutting and dead zone would be decreased the real flotation time and it is disadvantage to better flotation effect, especially for large flotation cell. It is impossible to eliminate the not ideal flow totally. It is very important to reveal and decrease the shorting cutting and dead zone probability in the flotation cell."

Jan 1, 2018

By Y. M. Zhu, G. C. Gong

"The influences of citric acid (CA) on the flotation behavior of cassiterite using styrene phosphonic acid (SPA) as the collector were studied via single mineral flotation tests, contact angle measurements, zeta potential determinations and solution chemistry calculations in this paper. The results of single mineral flotation tests revealed under the conditions that pH=4 and the dosage of SPA 100 mg/L, the recovery of cassiterite reached 76.78%. The addition of 20 mg/L AC decreased the recovery by 12.42% at pH=4. Contact angle measurements demonstrated the adsorption of CA prior to SPA made the cassiterite more hydrophilic. The results of zeta potential determinations and solution chemistry calculations indicated the chemisorption of C6H7O7- and C6H6O72- filled parts of the Sn site on cassiterite surface and prevented the SPA from getting adsorbed. The hydrophilic effect of AC was stronger than the hydrophobic effect of SPA and the flotation of cassiterite was crippled. INTRODUCTION Tin is an important metal which is widely used in medical instruments, marine engineering materials, electronic and electrical devices, welding, weapon manufacturing and organotin compounds industries (Angadi et al., 2015). Cassiterite is the only mineral from which the tin can be extracted, thus it is of great importance to efficiently exploit the cassiterite mineral. Flotation is an indispensable method for the recovery of cassiterite (Li et al., 2015). However, cassiterite is usually in association with many other gangue minerals which are of similar floatability, such as quartz, calcite, fluorite, iron oxide, wolframite, scheelite and tourmaline (Sreevinas, 1997). So some modifiers are necessary in the cassiterite flotation process. The amounts of the modifiers used in the flotation must be judicious and the overmuch modifiers may cripple the recovery of cassiterite (Parsonage et al., 1987). Nevertheless, the research about the effects of the modifiers on the flotation behavior of cassiterite has been rarely reported. In this paper, the influences of citric acid (CA) on the flotation of cassiterite using styrene phosphonic acid (SPA) as the collector were investigated by flotation tests, contact angle measurements, zeta potential determinations and solution chemistry calculations."

Jan 1, 2018

By Z. M. Dai

Microorganisms in AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) were enriched in 9K culture medium. The enrichment was applied to leach copper pyrite after the microbial community structure and metabolism was stable. Before and after bioleaching, the microbial DNA was extracted and applied to RFLP (restricted fragment length polymorphism) analysis to demonstrate the relationship between the leaching efficiency and the change of microbial community. Atomic absorption spectrometry results showed that when concentration of the pulp was 10% and pH were 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5, the leaching rate were 56%, 57% and 34% on the 18th day respectively. These results indicated that the rise of pH resulted in the decrease of leaching rate. In lower pH condition, the growth of microbe was faster: when pH was 1.5, the microbial cell number reached to 1.4×107cells/mL on the 9th day; while pH was 2.5, the microbial cell number decreased to 4×106cells/mL. The analysis of microbial community structure showed that Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans were dominant species before bioleaching (account for 43% and 32% respectively). And after bioleaching, these two species were still dominant when the initial bioleaching pH were1.5 and 2.0. While the initial bioleaching pH was 2.5, the proportion of these two species decreased. These results demonstrated that the initial bioleaching pH would affect the microbial community structure in bioleaching system at room temperature, and this affect could lead to different copper pyrites bioleaching efficiency.

Jan 1, 2014

By E. A. Brocchi

This work is dedicated to the chemical treatment of a typical EAF dust by chlorine content agents. The residue contains 48% Fe2O3 and 28% ZnO mainly in the franklinite structural form. The others less compounds are: 4.00% CaO, 2.60% MnO, 2.20% MgO, 1.08% PbO, 0.36% Cr2O3, 0.21% B2O3, 0.03% CdO and 0.01% NiO. The experiments purpose is selectively to remove zinc from the residue leaving the iron behind. Thermodynamics studies have indicated some roasting possibilities. The experimental results have shown that both HCl leaching and carbochlorination will remove iron and zinc without any selectivity. However, either the chlorine or the calcium chloride roasting seems to form, preferentially, the zinc chloride. So, it will be presented how the EAF Dust can be treated by the using of chlorine roastings process such as carbochlorination in order to separate the zinc and iron present in the frankilinite, main EAF dust content.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. F. He

There are three polymorphic modifications in pyrrhotite (monoclinic, hexagonal and orthorhombic), with monoclinic and hexagonal polymorph being more abundant. The floatability of different crystalline structures of pyrrhotite (monoclinic and hexagonal) is studied in this paper. It is shown that the floatability difference of monoclinic and hexagonal is obvious and that the flotation recovery of monoclinic pyrrhotite is greater than that of hexagonal pyrrhotite using different collectors . Using butyl dithiophosphate as collector, the flotation recovery of pyrrhotite is higher than when sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate and sodium butyl xanthate are used as the collectors. Monoclinic and hexagonal pyrrhotites are more easily activated by Cu2+ in acidic conditions than in alkaline conditions, while Cu2+ can not activate hexagonal pyrrhotite when sodium diethyldithiocarbamate was used as the collector. By the measurement of contact angle, it is indicated that monoclinic and hex-agonal pyrrhotite float well and are easily activated by Cu2+when dithiophosphate was used as the collector. Using sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate as a collector, the flotation behavior of pyrrhotite was investigated. The relationship between potential and pH range for pyrrhotite flotation was established. The results show that the flotation of pyrrhotite is dependent on pulp potential at certain pH values.

Jan 1, 2014

By Kr. J. Dedelyanova

Selective flocculation of iron minerals could improve the economics of high intensity magnetic separation as concomitant process. When the minerals are finely disseminated is necessary a finer grinding to be applied which generates a lot of slimes. The HIMS is not enough efficient for particles below 20 microns ? territory where the selective flocculation is already well known industrial practice, so the combination of these two methods of beneficiation can bring a higher grade at high recovery to be achieved. The dynamics and selectivity of the precipitation process is studied in batch tests with flocculant starch and dispersants sodium silicate and sodium hexametaphosphate. The influence of preliminary conditioning with nitrogen acid at pH 2 before flocculation is also investigated. Flowsheet including these two methods is tested and the distribution of iron is shown.

Jan 1, 2014

By Z. G. Li

The large-scale vibrating screen has been applied widely in coal industry and other industrial areas as a kind of important device. As vibration mechanical device, it works very hardly and works in very bad environment so that the structure of screen is damaged easily. Therefore, it is very important that how to detect the fault of structure as early as possible to make the repair schedule reasonably and economically and to avoid the body hurt and device damage. As a kind of important structure of vibrating screen, the lower crossbeam is the main carrying structure and it is easily damaged, so it is regarded as a researched object in this thesis and it is tested under the load in the laboratory. Based on the test, acoustic emission wave signals can be got-ten by modern acoustic emission testing technique. Then, the ?wavelet packet - energy? from the characteristics of acquiring signals is used as neural network input vector. In the BP network structure design, the design of a hidden layer with variable number of BP network is established. Based on the error by contrast, the best nerve number can be identified in the hidden layer. Through integrated analysis, using Levenberg-Marquard BP study algorithm, network-training errors are relatively small, the acoustic emission signal is used in BP neural network as a pattern of recognition. In Matlab6.5, neural network model identification is created and taking advantage of nonlinearity and the ability of learning and memory of Neural Network, this model is fixed by training structure of network with training samples. The work presented shows that acoustical emission signal processing and research on early fatigue fault diagnosis based on the wavelet and the neural network is viable.

Jan 1, 2014

By Fernando Concha

"Thickening development and innovation in the 20th Century occurred in two decades periods. From 1900 to 1920, Dorr invented the continuous thickener and the first method of thickener design was proposed by Coe & Clevenger. From 1920 to 1940, the operating variables of continuous thickening were discovered by Comings at the University of Illinois. From 1940 to 1960, the first theory of sedimentation was proposed by Kynch and several authors, Talmage and Fitch, Ysioka and Hasset used this theory to develop new thickener design methods. From 1960 to 1980 Shannon and Tory demonstrated that this theory applied exactly for the sedimentation for small rigid spheres in water and Scott showed that it is not valid for flocculated suspensions. From 1970 to 1990 the phenomenological theory of thickening was developed based on the theory of mixtures. Papers by Kos, Bascur, Thacker and Lavelle, Concha and Bascur, Concha and Barrientos, Auzeris, Buscal and White, Landman, White and Buscal show the application of this theory to thickening and Adorjan presented the first thickener design method based on this theory. In 1980s the mathematical analysis and solutions of Kynch’s model for batch and continuous thickeners was obtained by Bustos. The new Century brought solution to the phenomenological thickening model which was applied to thickener design, simulation and control. The method of thickener parameter determination was improved by designing new laboratory and on-line instruments and advanced control strategies was designed and validated in plants. Structural thickener design produced improved feedwells and feed dilution mechanism, stronger raking mechanism and different thickener shapes according to new ambient requirements, such as high rate thickener and paste thickeners that increase the water recovery. New challenges include better flocculation and advanced control strategies."

Jan 1, 2014

By X. Q. Wu

Magnetization in slurry (MIS) of weakly magnetic minerals by iron ions was investigated. The magnetic seeds (strongly magnetic particles) were synthesized by ferruginous chlorides directly in slurry instead of previous preparations of magnetic seeds by finely grinding mineral magnetite or specially synthesizing them separately in an aqueous solution. In this way, the growth of the seeds and their adsorption on the minerals simultaneously take place in the same slurry. That after MIS the recovery of weakly magnetic mineral limonite in a magnetic separator increased means the formation and adsorption of magnetic seeds on the surface of iron mineral limonite. The magnetization effect was evaluated by limonite recovery at a magnetic strength of 3.500 Gs in a magnetic separator. Mineral limonite was properly magnetized in the following slurry condition: molar ratio of Fe3+ to Fe2+1:3, slurry temperature of 45 °C and pH 10.5. The selectivity of the magnetization between minerals limonite and quartz was improved by adding surfactant sodium oleate.

Jan 1, 2014

By Alan Bax, John D. Lewins

"Platinum Australia Limited (“PLA”) is currently undertaking a Feasibility Study into the development of the Panton Platinum Palladium Project located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Panton Intrusive is a layered, differentiated mafic to ultramafic structurally complex body that has undergone numerous folding and faulting events. This has resulted in a southwesterly plunging synclinal structure some 10 kilometres in length and 3 kilometres wide.High grade PGM mineralisation is hosted within a number of stratiform chromitite reefs within the ultramafic sequence. The focus of the Feasibility Study is on the Top Reef which is situated approximately 150 metres below the mafic/ultramafic interface. The average true width of this reef is approximately 1.2 metres and the reef has a defined resource is 10.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 6.1 g/t PGM + Au.The Palladium to Platinum ratio of the Top Reef is approximately 1.15:1 and the reef also contains an average of 0.4 g/t Au and 0.3 g/t other PGM’s. The Panton ore is considered refractory in nature and standard flotation techniques achieve a PGM + Au recovery of less than 65% with a concentrate grade of less than 100 g/t PGM + Au. As part of the Feasibility Study Platinum Australia in conjunction with their major shareholder Lonmin Plc developed a new metallurgical process which has achieved an overall PGM + Au recovery of approximately 80% into a high grade PGM concentrate which is suitable for feeding direct to a PGM refinery.THE PANTON PROCESSThe Panton Process incorporates a two-stage Milling and Flotation circuit with no cleaning stages to produce a low grade, high recovery flotation concentrate. Typically the concentrate mass constitutes 25% of the feed and has a PGM + Au grade of 25 g/t.This low-grade concentrate is subjected to calcination in a rotary kiln or fluid bed at a temperature of approximately 400 0C for a period of 60 minutes. This step is designed to render the platinum minerals soluble in cyanide and both the temperature and the duration of calcination are critical to the efficiency of the leaching process."

Jan 1, 2003

By de Vaux. D.

Synthetic water with a calcium concentration of 80 ppm and 500 ppm was prepared and the flotation results obtained compared to a simple electrolyte in order to determine the effect water quality has on pentlandite and pyroxene surface alteration and, ultimately, floatability. During the study, the possible effect of interactions between the minerals investigated and Ca2+ ions in the presence of sodium isobutyl xanthate was studied at pH 6 and pH 9 by means of zeta potential determinations, microflotation tests and ToF-SIMS analysis. The results obtained have demonstrated that water quality does play a significant role in flotation recovery at the experimental conditions used.

Jan 1, 2003

By Z. A. Zhou

In Canadian oil sands processing, flotation is used to recover liberated bitumen droplets from oil sands slurries. Similar to conventional mineral flotation practice, a fundamental limitation of recovering bitumen from low grade oil sand ores is its slow and ineffective aeration of the liberated small bitumen droplets. Gas nucleation and cavitation could provide better mechanisms for accelerating bitumen-bubble attachment. A research program was undertaken to examine factors affecting spontaneous bubble nucleation on bitumen surfaces. The results demonstrate that surface hydrophobicity and existence of gas nuclei in process water play a critical role for bubble nucleation. While there are more bubbles nucleated on highly hydrophobic silanated glass surfaces than on moderately hydrophobic bitumen, bubble nucleation on clean hydrophilic glass surfaces is negligible. Heating process water up to 85 ~ 95oC (as used in commercial operation) or boiling tap water prior to gas nucleation tests is shown to remove sufficient amount of gas nuclei existing in the water, thereby drastically reducing the number of bubbles nucleated on bitumen. Enhancing gas nuclei formation in hot process water is identified as a promising strategy to improve bitumen-bubble attachment during oil sands conditioning, and hence to increase bitumen recovery from low grade ores.

Jan 1, 2014

By A. Üçyildiz

Magnesium borates of varying compositions and properties are synthesized using different reagents and methods for the possible potential uses as termoluminescent material, anti-wear and anti-friction additive, fire retardant, catalyst for the conversion of hydrocarbons, whisker material and ferroelastic material. In the current work, the conditions for synthesizing MgB4O7 compound by high-temperature solid-state reactions were investigated using boric acid and magnesium oxide as the starting materials. The MgO:B2O3 mole ratios applied in the experiments were 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and the thermal behaviours of each mixture were studied between 25~1200°C by TG/DTA analyses under static air atmosphere to find out the probable formation temperature of MgB4O7 phase. Considering TG/DTA results, freshly prepared boric acid and magnesium oxide solid mixtures were heated at predeter-mined temperatures and the phases were identified by XRD analyses. Accordingly, MgO:B2O3 mole ratio of 1:2, heating temperature of 950°C and a reaction time of 2 hours were selected as the optimum conditions for the formation of maximum amounts of MgB4O7. After obtaining solids prepared at the pre-determined optimum conditions, their chemical composition, IR spectrum, TG/DTA pattern, B.E.T. surface area value, particle size distribution and SEM images were deter-mined to point out the possible use areas. Experimental results showed that it was not possible to obtain pure product at the optimum conditions due to formation of minor amounts of t-Mg2B2O5 and the presence of some unreacted B2O3. The product synthesized has the potential for use as a corrosion inhibitor on some metal surfaces.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Z. Khan, Veerendra Singh, Y. Rama Murthy, S. Prasad, Sunil Kumar Tripathy, Gajanan Kapure

"In this study, a low-grade ferruginous low-grade chromite ore was subjected to reduction roasting by using conventional heating as well as microwave heating. Sukinda chromite ore deposit contains majorly iron-bearing minerals as gangue phase. The magnetic susceptibility of these minerals enhances effectively after reduction roasting. Alteration of crystalline structure and magnetic property of these metals enables separation of low-grade ore by using magnetic separation. Conventional roasting studies by varying the temperature, time of reduction and reductant dosage were changed for low-grade ferruginous chromite ore. Similarly, microwave power, retention/exposure time and reductant dosage varied for reduction roasting studies under microwave environment. It is found that low-grade ferruginous chromite ore can be upgraded by reduction roasting and 61.2% Cr2O3 was recovered with a chromium-to-iron ratio of 1.93 from feed chromium-to-iron ratio of 1. Microwave reduction roasting studies resulted in upgradation of chromium-to-iron ratio to 1.73 with a recovery of 21% Cr2O3.INTRODUCTION The chromite ore occurs as a spinel containing oxides of chromium, iron, magnesium and aluminium. Most of the Indian chromite deposits are of ferruginous (rich in iron content) which indicates the abundance of ferruginous gangue minerals along with chromite. The primary use of chromite ore is towards the production of ferrochrome alloys. Chromite ores with less than 40% Cr2O3 and the chromium-to-iron ratio (Cr-to-Fe ratio) <1.8 is considered to be unsuitable for the smelting process (Tripathy et al. 2012, Tripathy et al. 2012a). A considerable amount of low-grade chromite ore and overburden excavated during chromite mining is getting accumulated every year, causing a threat to the environment. Its disposal poses a significant challenge and, hence, the beneficiation of low-grade chromite ore and its utilisation has been attracting a lot of attention. Different physical method of beneficiation methods is generally employed for the improvement of the Cr-to-Fe ratio (Tripathy et al. 2012, Murthy et al. 2011, Tripathy et al. 2012a, Tripathy et al. 2013, Tripathy et al. 2016, Tripathy et al. 2017, Tripathy et al. 2017a). It is observed that the enrichment of the chromite ore is carried out by using gravity and in some places by magnetic separation. However, the enrichment of Cr-to-Fe ratio from low-grade ferruginous chromite ore is difficult by using the above-mentioned beneficiation methods due to the presence of near gravity and near-magnetic susceptibility minerals along with chromite. However, an alternative beneficiation method is needed to explore for the beneficiation of such mineral deposits. Reduction roasting followed by magnetic separation is an alternative option for the separation of these types of ores which is widely reported for the iron and manganese ore (Li, et al., 2010; Chun, et al., 2014, Rath et al., 2018). These processes are majorly focussed on differentiating the magnetic susceptibility between minerals and subsequent separation by using magnetic field. The main advantage of such method is dry process option along with the pre-processed product for the costly smelting process. Also, the roasting of minerals in a microwave environment is also an active research topic in the recent time. So, the amenability of the separation feature of the roasting process by using conventional heating as well as microwave heating can be can be studied for the low grade ferruginous chromite ores."

Jan 1, 2018

By V. Sheikhzadeh, M. Saghaeian, R. Hejazi, A. Abazarpoor

The research aimed to compare the chemical analysis (K, Na, Cl) of Iranian concentrate plants, which are the main source of materials corrosion in the pelletizing plants. Cl alongside alkaline elements (especially K) may cause corrosion and plug in the grate plates and other involved equipment. Therefore, it is tried in the processing plants to remove impurities from the concentrate to prevent potential problems in pelletizing and iron/steel making processes. Part of these impurities are existed in the nature of ores and others are sourced in the processing water. Various samples from the largest Iranian concentrate plants including Chadormalu, Gol-e-Gohar, Jalal-Abad and Sechahun were prepared to investigate the possibility of alkaline problems for each samples. The amount of Cl, K and Na of Chadormalu sample was obviously low and therefore no alkaline problem is expected. The Cl content of Gol-e-Gohar sample was high (980 ppm) while amount of K was less (0.008 Wt. %). Due to low content of K, most of Cl will release as Cl2 or HCl and so problems caused by KCl plugging would not be a problem. The amount of Cl in Sechahun case was nearly same as Jalal-Abad (400-600 ppm), higher than Chadormalu and less than Gol-e-Gohar samples. However, the K content was higher than all samples (0.04 Wt. %). Therefore, the amount of evaporated K would be 2-4 times more than other samples. Since the amount of Cl and K is simultaneously higher than usual iron ores, therefore alkaline problems may be a serious prevention factor for the continuous operation of this plant. In order to solve this problem some counter-measures is suggested and discussed including cleaning system, partial dust enriched with KCl removal and variation in the materials type of involved equipment.

Jan 1, 2018

By de Vaux. Deryck, Natalie J. Shackleton, Vratislav Malysiak Cyril T. O. Connor

"The major losses of PGM and base metals in the beneficiation of platinum group deposits occur during the separation of gangue from the value minerals by selective flotation. A number of studies have shown that this negative impact on flotation is due to surface passivation, caused by various ions that may originate from the external water supply or, as is likely in the majority of cases, from the oxidation of the mineral surfaces and the grinding media. This investigation aimed at reducing surface passivation of pentlandite and inadvertent activation of pyroxene, thereby improving ultimate valuable mineral recovery and selectivity. Both synthetic minerals and plant ores were studied in order to determine the effect surface passivation and inadvertent activation have on mineral surface alteration and floatability. Zeta potential determinations, microflotation, ToF-SIMS (Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) analyses, laboratory batch flotation tests and continuous flotation testwork were used as tools to study the surface alteration and/or floatability.Zeta potential determinations and ToF-SIMS analyses showed that copper adsorption is non-selective. Both pentlandite and pyroxene become copper (II)-activated in the presence of copper sulphate and subsequently, in the presence of xanthate, adsorption of the collector will occur onto copper activated mineral surfaces. Zeta potential determinations also showed an alteration of the surface charge in the presence of polyphosphate, thereby inhibiting surface passivation of sulphides by slime coatings due to surface repulsion.The addition of diethylenetriamine (DETA) reduces the copper concentration on both minerals, predominantly on the pyroxene surfaces and polyphosphate further enhances the selectivity at pH 6.The microflotation and batch flotation data obtained has shown a significant improvement in the ultimate flotation response of valuable mineral recovery and concentrate grade compared to the standard reagent regime, while the continuous flotation results significantly improved the selectivity, however, at a similar ultimate recovery."

Jan 1, 2003

By A. J. Ren

The ore, dealt with in this paper, is a certain rutile in Shanxi province, China. A trunk flowsheet with gravity concentration is used, and the TiO2 grade of rutile concentrate is about 90%, but the TiO2 recovery is less than 50%. In order to increase the rutile recovery, the laboratory test, using the truck flowsheet with flotation, is carried out. The flowsheet is that firstly floatable gangue is re-moved by flotation; secondly rutile is recovered by flotation; and thirdly impurity is separated by LIMS, HIMS, gravity concentration and flotation from the rutile concentrate. In rutile flotation, BK423, a phosphonic acid, is used as rutile collector, and Na2SiF6 is used as silicates depressant. The experimental result shows that the recovery of rutile concentrate is improved obviously, and the recovery of ultimate rutile concentrate is 68.01% TiO2 and 84.88% rutile. The TiO2 grade of first concentrate is 95.98%, and the TiO2 recovery is 45.60%. The TiO2 grade of second concentrate is 80.53%, and the recovery is 22.41%. Furthermore, magnetite and ilmenite are recovered in the flowsheet.

Jan 1, 2014