Physicochemical factors affecting the wettability of copper mine blasting dust

Abstract

To investigate the factors affecting the wettability of copper mine blasting dust, the primary blasting dust was collected from an open-pit copper mine and separated into hydrophilic blasting dust (HLBD) and hydrophobic blasting dust (HBBD) using water flotation method. The physicochemical properties of HLBD and HBBD were measured and compared with each other. The properties included particle size distributions (PSDs), micromorphologies, pore structures, mineral components and surface organic carbon functional groups. The results show that particle size and pore structure of the blasting dust are the main factors affecting its wettability. Specifically, particle size of HBBD is smaller than that of HLBD, and their respiratory dust (less than 10 µm) accounts for 61.74 vol% and 53.00 vol%, respectively. The pore structure of HBBD is more developed, and the total pore volume of HBBD is 1.66 times larger than that of HLBD. The identical mineral compositions were detected in HLBD and HBBD by X-rays diffraction (XRD); however, the surface organic hydrophobic component of HBBD is slightly larger than that of HLBD, this may be the reason for the poor wettability of HBBD. This study is significant to understand the effects of physicochemical properties of copper mine blasting dust on its wettability.