Abstract
A multi-scale investigation was conducted to study the surface properties of xanthate-absorbed chalcopyrite at elevated temperature to understand the temperature effect on the xanthate’s performance during chalcopyrite flotation. Firstly, a macro-scale study was initiated to investigate the temperature effect on the hydrophobicity of mineral surface by means of contact angle measurement, Hallimond tube microflotation and lab flotation tests; secondly, a micro–scale study was conducted to clarify the temperature effect on the adsorption of chemicals on mineral surface employing an atomic force microscope (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy-attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR). In the experiments, pure chalcopyrite samples were used for contact angle measurement, Hallimond tube microflotation, AFM and FTIR; and copper ore samples (1.51% Cu, 5.88% Fe 0.029% Mo, 5.23% S in weight percentage) were used for lab flotation tests. FTIR spectra and AFM images showed that, when potassium amyl xanthate (PAX) was used as the collector in this study, oily dixanthogen was the main hydrophobic species on the chalcopyrite surface. The morphological change of dixanthogen patches at elevated temperatures has a more significant impact than changes in the amount of adsorption species. Increasing temperature within a certain range is beneficial for the collector’s performance by increasing flotation recovery.
Highlights
In the copper extraction industry, porphyry chalcopyrite is usually separated from gangue, such as silica and silicates, by flotation using xanthate as a collector
It was reported that both dixanthogen and cuprous xanthate coexisted on the chalcopyrite surface, with amyl dixanthogen being the major product and cuprous xanthate complex forming monolayer [12,28], the spectra in this study showed that only dixanthogen was detected on the chalcopyrite surface and the observation was not affected by changing temperature and xanthate concentration
Contact angle measurement results show that increasing temperature can help increase the hydrophobicity of chalcopyrite when the collector’s concentration is fixed, and the reason is attributed to the increased surface area fraction of dixanthogen on the mineral surface at an elevated temperature
Summary
In the copper extraction industry, porphyry chalcopyrite is usually separated from gangue, such as silica and silicates, by flotation using xanthate as a collector. It is well known that for xanthate, the most widely applied collector for sulfides flotation, the oxidation of xanthate into dixanthogen on the mineral surface is the mechanism of the flotation of chalcopyrite using xanthate [1]. Plenty of test methods have been applied to figure out the impact of specific parameters on chalcopyrite flotation. Guo and Yen [2] conducted a series studies on the hydrophobicity of the chalcopyrite surface controlled by surface oxidation potential. It was reported that chalcopyrite could be hydrophobic only within a certain range of oxidation potential. Proper treatment with xanthate would enlarge the hydrophobic potential range. It was reported that metal xanthate and dixanthogen were observed and the different absorption density brought by varied solutions can be discerned through comparison of peak heights
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