Abstract
Malachite fines are easily produced in the grinding process, leading to low malachite flotation recovery. Floc-flotation of malachite fines with an octyl hydroxamate and kerosene mixture was studied to improve the flotation recovery, using microflotation, microscopy image observations, contact angle measurements, and Extended Derjguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (EDLVO) analysis. The results showed that the addition of octyl hydroxamate as an emulsifier of kerosene enhanced the aggregation of malachite fines and improved malachite flotation recovery. In addition, when kerosene droplets were smaller and of uniform size distribution, the spreading of kerosene droplets on the malachite surface improved. The enhanced spreading of kerosene droplets led to higher coverage of kerosene on the malachite surface, resulting in improved hydrophobic aggregation and flotation recovery.
Highlights
With the depletion of copper sulfide minerals, malachite has attracted increasing interest.Since malachite is a relatively soft mineral, with a Moh’s hardness of 3.5–4 [1], fines are produced in the crush and grinding process
Hydrophobic flocculation is one of the effective methods to increase the apparent sizes of the fine particles, which can be used before flotation to promote the flotation of fine minerals [3,4]
We hypothesize that the addition of octyl hydroxamate in the emulsification process can enhance the interaction between kerosene and the mineral, and be beneficial to floc-flotation of malachite fines
Summary
With the depletion of copper sulfide minerals, malachite has attracted increasing interest. Hydrophobic flocculation is one of the effective methods to increase the apparent sizes of the fine particles, which can be used before flotation to promote the flotation of fine minerals [3,4]. No investigation has yet been reported on the hydrophobic flocculation and floc-flotation of malachite fines in aqueous suspensions. No investigation studied the effect of octyl hydroxamate on the dispersion and spreading of nonpolar oil in the malachite flotation. In the current research, the effects of using octyl hydroxamate as a collector and emulsifier of kerosene in the floc-flotation of malachite fines were studied, making use of contact angle measurements, optical microscopy observations, microflotation, and EDLVO theoretical analysis. We hypothesize that the addition of octyl hydroxamate in the emulsification process can enhance the interaction between kerosene and the mineral, and be beneficial to floc-flotation of malachite fines
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