The Contribution of Long-Terms Static Interactions Between Minerals and Flotation Reagents for the Separation of Fluorite and Calcite

Leiming Huang,Hui Zhong,Qiang Zeng,Zhiguo He,Liang Hu,Yuehua Hu

doi:10.3390/min9110699

Abstract

The influences of long-term static interaction between flotation reagents and minerals on mineral surface properties and their flotation behaviors were investigated in this work. Single mineral results showed that when the static interaction time between flotation reagents and minerals increased from 0 to 8 days, there were no significant differences in the recovery of fluorite (ranging from 77.50% to 74.50%), while the recovery of calcite dramatically decreased from 97.17% to 41.13%. The collector adsorption results indicated that after the long-term static interaction between the collector and minerals, adsorption and desorption of collector on the minerals occurred, and the adsorption amount of collector on fluorite and calcite varied from 0.396 mg/g to 0.421 mg/g, and from 0.444 mg/g to 0.404 mg/g, respectively. The contact angles of fluorite and calcite decreased from 134.3° and 105.0° for 0 days to 109.7° and 52.5° for 8 days, respectively, which demonstrated that the fluorite had a higher hydrophobicity than that of calcite after 8 days of static interaction between the minerals and collector. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed that there were chemisorptions between the collector and the surfaces of the fluorite and calcite. Meanwhile, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results further elucidated that the amount of C=O from the oleic acid (OA) molecule for calcite treated for 8 days was less than for that treated for 0 days. In addition, the flotation results of the tailings from Jiangxi containing fluorite and calcite, indicated that the grade and recovery of fluorite increased from 87.18% and 40.99% for 0 days to 93.00% and 46.01% for 8 days, respectively, indicating that the separation of fluorite from calcite could be achieved via increasing the long-term static interaction between the flotation reagents and minerals.

Highlights

Fluorite (CaF2 ), the most important fluorine-containing mineral and the major source of fluorine in the industry, has been considered to be a valuable strategic resource [1,2]
The Flotation Separation of Fluorite Form Calcite Improved by the Long-Term Static Interaction
Previousstudies studieshave have shown the interaction between flotation and surfaces mineral could achieve equilibrium within minutes or tens of minutes, but a long-term static interaction has surfaces could achieve equilibrium within minutes or tens of minutes, but a long-term static not been reported

Summary

Introduction

Fluorite (CaF2 ), the most important fluorine-containing mineral and the major source of fluorine in the industry, has been considered to be a valuable strategic resource [1,2]. It has been widely used in the manufacture of glass, steelmaking, the production of hydrofluoric acid, pottery, enamel, drugs and catalyst [3,4,5]. To meet the market’s demand, before entering the fluorite commercial market, the grade of most fluorite minerals has to be improved by flotation, which is a method of utilizing the physicochemical properties of mineral surfaces [7]. The development of novel flotation methods is urgently needed to solve the effective separation of these two minerals

Methods

Results

Conclusion