Collecting performance of vegetable oils in scheelite flotation and differential analysis

Abstract

The composition of a collector directly affects its collecting performance in mineral flotation. In this study, three vegetable oils were used as the collectors, the flotation performance of scheelite and the differential analysis were studied through flotation experiments, zeta potential, contact angle measurement and Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR) analysis. Flotation results show that the recovery of scheelite increases in the order of oleic acid<rapeseed oil<rice bran oil<soybean oil, especially in the pH range of 5–8. The distinction in the scheelite recovery is due to the different compositions of these collectors. The addition of LA, LNA and PA (<5%) can increase the recovery of scheelite with OA, but the addition of SA deteriorates the scheelite flotation. Results of zeta potential, contact angle measurement and FTIR analysis indicate that the collector adsorption on scheelite surface is enhanced when using the three vegetable oils. For the raw ore with 0.086% WO3, a rough concentrate containing 1.423% WO3 with the recovery of 84.22% is obtained using soybean oil as the collector.