The research of the absorption potential effect of the minerals surface on the cassiterite flotation process

Abstract

Introduction. The use of flotation for tin additional recovery and in order to increase integrated use of raw materials is one of the main trends in tin ores beneficiation technology development. Research aim is to identify the mechanism of reagents action on the pulp particles surface during the flotation of tin-containing products containing cassiterite. 78 "Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii. Gornyi zhurnal". No. 3. 2020 ISSN 0536-1028 Methodology. Pulp absorption potential was measured on Dispersion DT-310 electro-acoustic spectrometer from Dispersion Technolodgy Inc., USA. The object of research was the cleaning products of the collective concentrate obtained from beneficiation sludge tailings of Solnechny enrichment plant (the Khabarovsk Territory). The surface of the initial product was sequentially treated with the following reagents: sodium hexametaphosphate, kerosene, liquid glass, aluminum sulfate and the Asparal-F collector reagent with measurements of the absorption potential. At the same time, open flotation experiments were carried out with fractionated removal of the foam product. Results. The research results have shown that the main influence on pulp absorption potential is exerted by a depressor - aluminum sulfate. With its consumption of 800 and 1600 g/t, the value of the absorption potential decreases to the level of minus 1.3–1.4 mV, having a negative extremum. With a further increase in depressor consumption to 2400 g/t, there is a abrupt jump in the absorption potential to positive values. The study of absorption potential value dependence on Asparal-F reagent-collector consumption has shown that an increase in the collector flow rate to 400 g/t causes a abrupt jump and alternation of the potential from + to – (– 0.05 mV) and the intersection of the curve with the zero point allows to determine its optimal flow rate 360 g/t. Flotation of the initial product with fractional removal of foam has shown that it was this jump that led to an increase in the quality of fractions from 0.40 to 1.04% in terms of tin content. Further processing of the obtained flotation tin product according to the gravitational scheme made it possible to obtain conditioned tin concentrate with a tin content of 24.8%. Conclusions. The study of thin intermediate products tin flotation process in the tailings processing flow chart of Solnechny enrichment plant with pulp ζ-potential evaluation revealed some regularities of this indicator influence on the flotation results and the optimal consumption of flotation reagents.