Intensification of the flotation separation of potash ore using ultrasound treatment

Abstract

The difficulties of beneficiation of the potash ores by flotation is controlled by the structural similarity of the soluble salt minerals such as halite NaCl and sylvite KCl leading to the same surface properties and reactivity of those minerals when cationic reagents are used as collector. In this work, the effect of sonication on the selective flotation and separation contrast between sylvite KCl and halite NaCl in saturated salt solutions was investigated. The flotation experiments were performed on the potash ore samples from the Verkhnekamskoye deposit, Russia, using primary amine as the collector. Different particle sizes (0.5–1 mm, 0.25–0.5 mm, and 0.1–0.25 mm) with similar contents of K (26–29 %) and Na (16.5–18 %) and the same mineralogical compositions were studied. Pulp sonication was performed during the conditioning and/or flotation stages at 30 % solid content in a mechanical flotation machine using an ultrasonic generator at powers from 10 to 75 W at a resonant frequency of 20 kHz. In the absence of the sonication, the maximum recovery of sylvite was obtained for the size fraction of 0.25–0.5 mm (93.99 %) while the sylvite recovery was low for the coarse-grained fraction (0.5–1 mm). The lowest flotation selectivity was observed for the fine-grained ore sample (0.1–0.25 mm). The combined ultrasonic treatment of this sample during conditioning and flotation approximately halved the recovery of NaCl in the potash concentrate (from 17.9 % to 9.9 %) and increased the KCl recovery from 89.9 % to 95.9 %. The addition of a frother increased significantly the sylvite recovery under sonication for coarse size fraction while the effect was less prononoced for the intermediate size fraction. The enhanced flotation selectivity between KCl and NaCl under sonication was attributed to the increased detachment of weak hydrophobic NaCl particles from air bubbles according to the particle size and mode of treatment. The collector desorption from the halite surface unrevealed by the diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy was suggested as a factor controlling the selective detachment of low hydrophobic particles under sonication. Therefore, based on our results, a balance must be established between the particle size, collector consumption, ultrasound treatment power, and sonication method (during conditioning with reagents or/and flotation) to optimize the separation between NaCl and KCl.