Study of the effect of pH, conditioning and flotation time on the flotation efficiency of phosphate ores by a soybean oil collector

Abstract

The mid-low grade of phosphate ore, rich by the silicate and carbonate gangue minerals needs a special treatment using the flotation process. Where the collectors play a pivotal role. This study was conducted to enrich an untreated phosphate ore (without washing, desliming, hydrocycling, etc.), with an eco-friendly and economic collector based on soybean oil. Different analytical techniques such as UV-Visible, ATR-FTIR spectrometric and XRD were used in order to analyse and characterize the flotation products. The effects of the parameters, pulp pH, conditioning time and flotation time on gangue removal efficiency by flotation, were investigated. Flotation tests were applied for granulometric class (90 mm to 125 µm). Consequently, a good quality phosphate concentrate was obtained in an acidic medium (pH = 4.05) with 1 g of soybean oil soap collector, 20 min flotation time, 10 min conditioning time, 0.17 L×min-1 air superficial velocity, 800 rpm at 25℃ and 6% solid content. The concentrate contained 29.0% phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), with a recovery of 94.5% from a feed sample containing about 24.5% P2O5.