Sodium N-Lauroylsarcosinate (SNLS) as a Selective Collector for Calcareous Phosphate Beneficiation

Abstract

Sodium N-lauroylsarcosinate (SNLS) was employed as a selective flotation collector for dolomite–apatite separation. The influence of pH, condition time, and collector dose on the flotation performance of both apatite and dolomite minerals was investigated using single mineral and binary mixed mineral flotation experiments. The performance of SNLS was compared to sodium oleate (NaOL), as a standard collector. In this study, the adsorption mechanism of SNLS on both minerals was studied using zeta-potential and FT-IR measurements. The results showed that SNLS prefers to adsorb on the dolomite mineral. The maximum difference in floatability was 83% for single dolomite and apatite minerals at pH 10 in the presence of 0.05 mmol/L SNLS. Binary mixtures of dolomite and apatite minerals of different ratios were applied, to evaluate their separation efficiency. The SNLS could separate dolomite from its mixtures with apatite minerals. Using 0.2 mmol/L of SNLS at pH 10, a concentrate of 30.9% P2O5 and 0.79% MgO was obtained from a natural phosphate ore having 25.8% P2O5 and 5.16% MgO.