What are the influencing factors in barite flotation?

Barite is a salt mineral, so flotation is commonly used in the processing of barite. The interaction between collectors and barite minerals has a great impact on the grade and recovery of barite concentrate. At the same time, when flotation separation of associated minerals with similar floatability to barite, effective inhibitors can increase the difference in floatability between the two, which is also one of the keys to the flotation separation of barite.

In the flotation process of barite ore, both corrosion inhibitors and collectors play a very important role. Under conventional flotation conditions, the recovery rate of barite can reach more than 80%, and the collector also has good foaming properties, so barite flotation rarely involves activators and foaming agents.

In addition, flotation mainly occurs on the surface of barite minerals. The quality of flotation is related to the floatability of barite, surface electrical properties, the strength of chemical adsorption, the pH value of the flotation environment and the concentration level, etc.

1.Collector

Barite flotation generally uses anionic collectors, and fatty acids are one of the less selective collectors. Common ones include oleic acid, sodium oleate, oxidized paraffin soap, etc. Flotation in many cases depends on the concentration of fatty acid anions in the slurry, which is related to the pH of the slurry.

Fatty acid collectors have strong collection ability, are non-toxic and require less dosage, but are not resistant to low temperatures, have poor selectivity and are expensive.

Alkyl sulfate collectors have strong collection ability, certain foaming performance, low toxicity, easy water solubility, and good selectivity. So they are often used in barite flotation.

Sodium lauryl sulfate (RO-SO 3 Na) and sodium lauryl sulfate (R-SO 3 Na) are commonly used alkyl sulfate collectors in industrial production. Used as a combined collector.

2. Inhibitors

Barite and fluorite have similar mineralization rules and are often embedded in each other. The density difference between the two is very small, so it is difficult to separate them by gravity separation. Moreover, they are all salt minerals with similar floatability and are difficult to separate by flotation. Therefore, barite corrosion inhibitors are mainly used in the flotation of barite-fluorite ores to inhibit barite. Barite inhibitors mainly include tannin extract, starch, dextrin, sodium lignosulfonate and other high molecular carbohydrates, as well as inorganic substances such as sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, sodium hexametaphosphate, Al 3+ and Pb 2+ Salt compounds and their mixtures form complex inhibitors.

When quartz is the main gangue mineral in barite mines, water glass is generally used as an inhibitor. On the one hand, the barite mineral has good floatability under weakly alkaline conditions, and the weakly alkaline flotation environment is also conducive to the suppression of quartz and other gangue minerals by water glass.

In order to improve the corrosion inhibition effect of the agent, composite corrosion inhibitors are often used in flotation. With the development of mineral resources, barite ores have complex co-association relationships, fine embedded particles, and similar floatability. The use of inhibitors has become one of the keys to barite flotation. Among them, combined inhibitors can greatly improve the efficacy and become a development trend with practical significance to improve inhibitory effects, increase inhibitory efficiency, and reduce drug consumption.

3. PH value

pH value is an important factor affecting barite flotation. The flotability of the mineral changes with the pH value of the slurry. There is a maximum floatable pH range for barite during the flotation process, and its maximum floatable pH range is approximately neutral pH, which increases within a certain range as the amount of oleic acid increases.

  4. Number of times of concentration

In actual production, there are certain requirements for the number of times of concentration. Under given test conditions, the concentrate after a flotation stage still contains a certain amount of gangue. In order to remove these gangue and impurities, multiple concentrations are required. The smaller the efficiency of the collector and regulator, the more useful mineral particles will be removed as medium particles, and the recovery rate will decrease. Therefore, the number of concentration times should be reasonably controlled.

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