Mineralogical Prediction on the Flotation Behavior of Copper and Molybdenum Minerals from Blended Cu–Mo Ores in Seawater

The copper ore in Chilean copper porphyry deposits is often associated with molybdenum minerals. This copper–molybdenum (Cu–Mo) sulfide ore is generally mined from various locations in the mining site; thus, the mineral composition, oxidation degree, mineral particle size, and grade vary. Therefore, in the mining operation, it is common to blend the ores mined from various spots and then process them using flotation. In this study, the floatability of five types of Cu–Mo ores and the blending of these ores in seawater was investigated. The oxidation degree of these Cu–Mo ores was evaluated, and the correlation between flotation recovery and oxidation degree is presented. Furthermore, the flotation kinetics of each Cu–Mo ore were calculated based on a mineralogical analysis using mineral liberation analysis (MLA). A mineralogical prediction model was proposed to estimate the flotation behavior of blended Cu–Mo ore as a function of the flotation behavior of each Cu–Mo ore. The flotation results show that the recovery of copper and molybdenum decreased with the increasing copper oxidization degree. In addition, the recovery of blended ore can be predicted via the flotation rate equation, using the maximum recovery (Rmax) and flotation rate coefficient (k) determined from the flotation rate analysis of each ore before blending. It was found that Rmax and k of the respective minerals slightly decreased with increasing the degree of copper oxidation. Moreover, Rmax varied greatly depending on the mineral species. The total copper and molybdenum recovery were strongly affected by the degree of copper oxidation as the mineral fraction in the ore varied greatly depending upon the degree of oxidation.

IMPROVING FLUORITE FLOTATION UNDER LOW TEMPERATURE AND NEUTRAL pH CONDITIONS

The authors provide insight into the problem of selective flotation of fluorite from quartz–fluorite ores. The flotation of fluorite mineral from ores by using acidized water glass as depressant has been studied for substitution of the commonly used depressant. It was found that the acidized water glass could achieve higher selectivity of fluorite minerals against gangue minerals in the fluorite flotation. The experimental results showed that YF collector has high selectivity in the flotation of fluoride for low-grade fluorite ores. The use of the YF collector also made it unnecessary to heat the pulp to a high temperature and achieved an acceptable reduction in the flotation temperature to [Formula: see text]C. The YF collector should be used in neutral pH to separate fluorite from gangue and it could also improve fluorite recovery and flotation rate.

Comparative Spectroscopic Studies on Flotation Rate of Low Toxic Mixed Solvents

The application of hydrophilic mixed solvents provides a new direction for the study of green air flotation technology. In this test, a mixture of n-propanol and anhydrous ethanol (4:1) was selected as solvent, sodium chloride as phase separator, sodium hydroxide solution was used to maintain acidity and hydrophobic associations formed by Fe(III) and doxycycline were flotated to the organic phase. After flotation, the hydrophobic associations were analyzed by spectrophotometry and high performance liquid chromatography. The results showed that the hydrophilic mixed solvent maintained good flotation rate without toxicity