Selective Separation of Fluorite, Barite and Calcite with Valonea Extract and Sodium Fluosilicate as Depressants
1
School of Resources and Environment Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
2
Sichuan Province Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration and Development Chengdu Integrated Testing Center of Rocks and Ores, Chengdu 610084, China
3
School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
4
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: William Skinner
Minerals 2017, 7(2), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/min7020024
Received: 20 December 2016 / Revised: 1 February 2017 / Accepted: 9 February 2017 / Published: 16 February 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flotation in Mineral Processing)
Fluorite, barite and calcite are important industry minerals. However, they often co-exist, presenting difficulty in selectively separating them due to their similar surface properties. In this study, valonea extract and sodium fluosilicate were used as depressants to selectively separate them by flotation, with sodium oleate as the collector. The single mineral flotation results showed that valonea extract displayed the strongest depression on calcite, while sodium fluosilicate displayed the strongest depression on barite. These two depressants allowed selective separation of the three minerals through sequential flotation. The flotation of mixed minerals showed that 94% of the calcite was successfully depressed by the valonea extract, and 95% recovery of the fluorite was achieved in the subsequent flotation with sodium fluosilicate depressing barite. The different depressant–mineral interactions were investigated via electro-kinetic studies and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the Materials Studio 6.0 program. The valonea extract exhibited the strongest adsorption on the calcite surface, and sodium fluosilicate exhibited the strongest adsorption on the barite surface, which prevented oleate species from reacting with Ca2+ or Ba2+ surface sites. This study provides useful guidance for how to process fluorite, barite and calcite resources.
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Keywords:
fluorite; barite; calcite; valonea extract; sodium fluosilicate
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ren, Z.; Yu, F.; Gao, H.; Chen, Z.; Peng, Y.; Liu, L. Selective Separation of Fluorite, Barite and Calcite with Valonea Extract and Sodium Fluosilicate as Depressants. Minerals 2017, 7, 24.
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