Abstract
The preceding article (2nd Report) referred to the relationship between the characteristics of fracturesurface and the electrochemical properties of aluminum-silicate minerals such as kyanite, andalusites.and sillimanite. It was also presented in the first report of this investigation that the results of flotationtests of kyanite and andalusite out of the above three minerals were correlated with those electrochemicalproperties.Kyanite has a triclinic crystal structure, -whereas both andalusite and sillimanite have an orthorhombicstructure. However, since these three minerals are known to have identical chemical compositions (Al2O3·SiO2), it appears desirable to undertake a supplementary study on the flotation characteristics ofsillimanite in order to confirm the effect of the crystal structure on the surface properties and floatabilityof the above-mentioned aluminum-silicate minerals.In this paper the findings on the flotation characteristics of sillimanite are summarized and theresults compared with those obtained for kyanite and andalusite. As a result of batch flotation tests onquartz-sillimanite mixtures, the selectivity index reached maximum at about pH 3.0 when sodium dodecylsulfateis used as a collector, indicating that the floatability of the mineral depends mainly on its electrochemicalproperties. It is further suggested from the results of flotation tests using oleic acid as a collectorthat either the flotation of quartz with calcium activation at about pH 11.0, or the flotation of sillmanitewithout activation at the pH range of 6.0-7.0 is preferable.
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