How to select fluorite minerals in mineral processing reagents?

As a non-metallic mineral that is easy to float, fluorite's flotation process becomes complicated because it often coexists with non-metallic minerals such as barite, quartz, calcite, and sulfide minerals such as galena, sphalerite, and pyrite. Therefore, the selection of suitable inhibitors and collectors is crucial for the flotation of fluorite ore.

Flotation of quartz-fluorite fluorite ore

The main gangue mineral of quartz-fluorite fluorite ore is quartz. The fluorite grade of this type of ore is high, and flotation is relatively easy. Oleic acid or oxidized paraffin soap is used as a collector, sodium carbonate is used to adjust the pH of the slurry to 8~9, and water glass is used as a quartz inhibitor. High-quality fluorite concentrate can be obtained by adjusting process parameters and multiple concentrations.

In the flotation process, attention should be paid to grinding fineness, water glass dosage and slurry pH value. For fine-grained quartz-fluorite fluorite ores, stage grinding and concentrate regrinding are necessary to ensure the monomer dissociation of fluorite and quartz and avoid over-grinding. The amount of water glass needs to be determined by conditional testing to avoid inhibition of fluorite. In addition, adjusting the slurry to weak alkalinity helps to inhibit quartz while maintaining a high floatation rate of fluorite.

Flotation of calcite-fluorite fluorite ores

The flotation of calcite-fluorite fluorite ores is more challenging because both calcite and fluorite are calcium-containing salt minerals. They have a large solubility in the slurry and have similar activity to collectors such as oleic acid, resulting in difficulty in separation. Therefore, specific adjusters and collectors are needed to achieve separation by taking advantage of their subtle differences in structure.

Commonly used adjusters include sodium silicate, modified water glass, phosphates, starch and its synthetics, tannins, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, sodium humate, sodium lignin sulfonate, etc. These reagents can be modified or combined to achieve effective separation of fluorite and calcite.

In summary, the flotation process of fluorite ore needs to be customized according to the specific type of ore and the characteristics of the paragenetic minerals. Through precise reagent selection and process control, efficient separation of fluorite ore and production of high-grade concentrate can be achieved.