Beneficiation of low-grade collophane by a novel combined enhanced gravity separation-flotation process

Abstract

ABSTRACT The application of gravity separation in flotation process of collophane can reduce the reagent consumption. Aiming at the poor pre-separation performance of conventional gravity separators, this work introduced enhanced gravity separation technology into the flotation process of low-grade collophane. After enhanced gravity separator treating, the P2O5 grade of collophane increased from 14.84% to 20.26% with a recovery of 79.55% under the optimal conditions (GF of 78.56 wt%, FR of 22.04 ml/s, RF of 44.50 Hz, and BWP of 0.02 Mpa). Compared with conventional gravity separators, the P2O5 recovery has been significantly increased by nearly 30%, and the P2O5 grade (7.27%) of tailings has been reduced remarkably, which is a considerable breakthrough in the gravity pre-separation direction of low-grade collophane. On this basis, a novel combined enhanced gravity separation-flotation process was proposed. Compared with the existing research findings, the novel process has the advantages of simplicity and high efficiency, which can not only ensure the separation indexes, but also reduce the beneficiation cost and environmental pollution. The introduction of enhanced gravity separator makes the combined enhanced gravity separation-flotation process become an effective and prospective approach in the separation of low-grade collophane, especially in the face of increasingly serious environmental problems.