What are the fluorite flotation agents?

Fluorite ore exists in its single mineral form or in the form of paragenesis or association with calcite, barite, etc. The difficulty of its mineral processing lies in the fine-grained intercalation of fluorite and calcium-containing gangue minerals, the complex paragenesis relationship and the serious inclusion replacement phenomenon.

These factors lead to the similar surface physical and chemical properties of fluorite and gangue minerals, which brings difficulties to effective separation in industry. In view of the high-grade requirements of fluorite concentrate in industry, it is usually necessary to go through multiple concentration and scavenging to improve the product quality. Flotation is the main method of fluorite beneficiation. The key to improving its efficiency lies in the development of efficient flotation reagents and the optimization of flotation process.

The research focus of fluorite flotation reagents is on collectors and inhibitors. Collectors are mainly fatty acids, and also include alkyl sulfates, alkyl sulfonates, tall oil, organic sulfonates and sulfates. Inhibitors are mainly water glass, supplemented by sodium metaphosphate, tannic acid, tannin, starch, dextrin, lignin sulfonate, etc.

1. Fluorite beneficiation collectors The collectors for fluorite flotation are divided into conventional and low-temperature flotation collectors. Commonly used collectors are fatty acids and their derivatives, which react with minerals through chemical adsorption and physical adsorption. Conventional collectors include fatty acid collectors and modified products of oleic acid, which have the advantages of low cost and wide sources, but oleic acid collectors have poor water solubility, poor dispersibility, and weak antifreeze ability. The slurry temperature needs to be raised to above 30°C to achieve a good collection effect.

2. Fluorite adjusters Since fluorite and calcium-containing gangue minerals have similar surface physical and chemical properties, the selective adsorption of collectors is difficult, making the separation of fluorite and calcium-containing gangue minerals a challenge for fluorite flotation. Calcium-containing gangue minerals mainly include calcite, garnet, barite, chlorite, etc. In order to achieve effective separation, it is necessary to select suitable adjusters to enhance the surface physical and chemical properties and floatability differences between fluorite and gangue minerals. Commonly used adjusters are pH adjusters and inhibitors.

(1) Inhibitors The main gangue minerals of fluorite include quartz, barite and calcite, and the main inhibitors are water glass, aluminum sulfate, sodium humate, sodium hexametaphosphate, tannin, tannin, oxidized paraffin soap and starch. The development of combined inhibitors and new strong inhibitors is the main direction of future research on fluorite flotation inhibitors.

(2) pH adjusters The best effect of some reagents needs to be achieved under specific pH conditions. The use of pH adjusters can adjust the pH value and potential of the slurry and enhance the effect of the reagents. Sodium carbonate is a commonly used pH adjuster in fluorite flotation.

In summary, the fluorite ore beneficiation technology is gradually improving the beneficiation efficiency and product quality through the innovation of collectors and adjusters and the improvement of flotation processes to meet the demand for high-grade fluorite concentrate in industrial production.