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Minerals
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Froth Flotation
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Froth Flotation

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 8449

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Kari Heiskanen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, Finland
Interests: flotation; flotation bubbles; froth flotation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

Froth flotation has been the most important technological invention to provide humankind with the metals required. However, ores have become leaner and more complex to process, challenging our long-held technological solutions.

Requirements to reduce global warming by reducing CO2 emissions bring considerable challenges to mineral beneficiation, especially the development of froth flotation technology. The challenges are both systemic and deposit related, and go from theoretical understanding to plant practices. Challenging themes include resource efficiency, energy, and water use. The future ores will be leaner and more complex to process. The solutions developed by the mineral processing community to address these issues will dictate the future of the field.

However, there are new and interesting insights into froth flotation, its operation and chemistry, and efforts to mitigate energy and water use, all of which merit publication.

Technical papers discussing new theoretical aspects of froth flotation, new reagents, and new operational innovations and processes for all types of ore deposits (including industrial minerals and secondary raw materials) are invited to this Special Issue on Froth Flotation.

Prof. Dr. Kari Heiskanen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • flotation
  • recovery
  • flotation kinetics
  • sulphide ore
  • oxide ore
  • industrial mineral ore
  • battery metals
  • mineral mixtures
  • floatability
  • flotation bubbles
  • superficial gas rate
  • gas hold-up
  • flotation froths
  • surface reaction
  • adsorption mechanism
  • enthalpy of adsorption
  • bubble-particle interaction
  • anionic collector
  • cationic collector
  • xanthate
  • thiols
  • amines
  • fatty acids
  • reagent adsorption
  • aynergistic interaction
  • bubble–particle attachment
  • adsorption layer structure
  • electrochemistry
  • contact angle
  • surface analytics
  • process water
  • dissolved ion
  • particle liberation
  • column flotation
  • mechanical cell
  • novel flotation methods
  • coarse flotation
  • fine flotation
  • dimensioning
  • flotation design
  • modelling
  • flotation control
  • flotation performance
  • industrial testing
  • flotation tailings

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 3427 KiB  
Article
Study of the Mechanism of the Fe-BHA Chelates in Scheelite Flotation
by Chen Zhao, Chuanyao Sun, Yangge Zhu, Yimin Zhu and Wanzhong Yin
Minerals 2022, 12(4), 484; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12040484 - 15 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1569
Abstract
Scheelite associated with calcium-containing minerals such as calcite and fluorite is difficult to separate by flotation because of the Ca ions contained in the mineral lattices, which cause scheelite to have similar surface properties and floatability to gangue minerals. Traditional collectors such as [...] Read more.
Scheelite associated with calcium-containing minerals such as calcite and fluorite is difficult to separate by flotation because of the Ca ions contained in the mineral lattices, which cause scheelite to have similar surface properties and floatability to gangue minerals. Traditional collectors such as oleic acid need to add a large amount of sodium silicate as gangue inhibitors, which causes difficulties for the settlement of tailings. In addition, the use of benzohydroxamic acid (BHA), which needs the addition of Pb(NO3)2 as the scheelite activator, can also cause environmental pollution. In this paper, Fe-BHA, a new collector containing the iron complex, was studied to investigate its flotation ability of scheelite, as well as its BHA/FeCl3 ratio on scheelite flotations. In the single mineral flotations, the Fe-BHA showed a significant difference in the flotation recoveries of scheelite and calcite, with a scheelite recovery of 77.03% at pH 8.0 and calcite recovery of 16.69% at the same pH. The results of the roughing tests of Xianglushan actual ore showed that the scheelite with Fe-BHA (500 g/t BHA and 200 g/t FeCl3) and 40 g/t oleic acid as collectors obtained satisfactory flotation results with a WO3 grade of 1.56% and WO3 recovery of 65.52%, which were much higher than those of scheelite with BHA or oleic acid as the collector, but there was still a gap with those of scheelite using Pb(NO3)2 as activation and BHA as the collector. The UV-Vis curves of the Fe-BHA with different BHA/FeCl3 ratios indicated that the Fe-BHA chelates might have several different structural forms, and the single mineral tests of the BHA/FeCl3 ratios showed that when the molar ratio of benzohydroxamic acid to FeCl3 was about 1.2:1, the best scheelite flotation result was obtained in this test. In addition, the XPS analyses proved that the adsorption of the Fe-BHA on the scheelite surface occurred, and by fitting the peaks of Ca 2p and O 1s of scheelite, it was found that the mechanism of the Fe-BHA acting on the Ca sites of the scheelite surface was through the removal of H2O from the Ca-OH of scheelite and Fe-OH from Fe-BHA to form Fe-O-H. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Froth Flotation)
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20 pages, 7909 KiB  
Article
Comparison and Mechanism Analysis of Three-Phase Contact Formation onto Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Mineral Surfaces in the Presence of Cationic/Anionic Surfactants during Flotation Process
by Xianyuan Li, Ya Gao, Mei Li, Hao Jiang, Jiahui Xie and Guoyuan Xiang
Minerals 2022, 12(2), 219; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12020219 - 9 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1472
Abstract
This article presents the dynamic process of the three-phase contact (TPC) formation by colliding bubbles onto muscovite and talc surfaces in water and two types of solutions including cationic CTAC surfactant (cetyltrimethyl ammoniumchloride) and anionic NaOL surfactant (sodium oleate). The TPC formation process [...] Read more.
This article presents the dynamic process of the three-phase contact (TPC) formation by colliding bubbles onto muscovite and talc surfaces in water and two types of solutions including cationic CTAC surfactant (cetyltrimethyl ammoniumchloride) and anionic NaOL surfactant (sodium oleate). The TPC formation process was observed through the high-speed camera between bubbles and layered silicate minerals (hydrophilic muscovite and hydrophobic talc). It was found that the rupture of the liquid film between the bubbles and the mineral surface is a prerequisite for TPC formation. In the case of muscovite, TPC was formed only with cationic CTAC, and as the surfactant concentration increased, the time needed for TPC formation was shortened. Due to electrostatic repulsion, TPC did not occur in water and NaOL. However, for talc, TPC occurred both in water and in surfactant solutions. In contrast to muscovite, the time of TPC formation on the talc surface was prolonged with the increase in the surfactant concentration. It was concluded that hydrophobic attraction and electrostatic attraction between mineral surfaces and bubbles can significantly promote the localized foam film rupture, which was the main reason for the TPC appearance in water and surfactants. For the hydrophilic muscovite, CTAC adsorption improved the surface hydrophobicity; I3/I1 in fluorescence spectroscopy increased, and the micro-polarity faded, making TPC formation need more time. However, for the natural hydrophobic talc, the increasing surfactant adsorption decreased I3/I1 values and enhanced the local micro-polarity, causing the extension of time for TPC. Therefore, TPC formation for different minerals resulted from different reasons. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Froth Flotation)
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20 pages, 14382 KiB  
Article
Process Mineralogy Characteristics and Flotation Application of a Refractory Collophanite from Guizhou, China
by Wei Xu, Bo Shi, Yan Tian, Yue Chen, Songqing Li, Qian Cheng and Guangjun Mei
Minerals 2021, 11(11), 1249; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11111249 - 10 Nov 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1826
Abstract
A refractory phosphate ore obtained from Guizhou, China, contains high amounts of detrimental metal impurities (e.g., Fe, Al, and Mg) which affect the deep wet processing of phosphorus products before use. In this study, mineralogy parameters of the ore such as mineral composition, [...] Read more.
A refractory phosphate ore obtained from Guizhou, China, contains high amounts of detrimental metal impurities (e.g., Fe, Al, and Mg) which affect the deep wet processing of phosphorus products before use. In this study, mineralogy parameters of the ore such as mineral composition, disseminated particle size, mineral liberation degree, and intergrowth relationship were investigated using X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF), X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), and advanced mineral identification and characterization system (AMICS). The mechanism for flotation separation was also discussed. The results showed that the ore was a fine-grained calcareous-siliceous collophanite with high P2O5 grade. The gangue minerals such as quartz, sericite (muscovite), pyrite, and dolomite were finely disseminated and encapsulated by fluoroapatite particles in a rather complex relationship. A double reverse flotation process was carried out based on the separation principle of less flotation and more inhibition. A phosphorous concentrate with a P2O5 grade of 35.53%, SiO2 content of 5.88%, MgO content of 0.91%, sesquioxide (Fe2O3 + Al2O3) content of 1.98%, MER value of 8.13%, and phosphorus recovery of 75.04% was obtained. Based on the flotation test results and the analysis of process mineralogy parameters, we concluded that the main causes of difficulty in separation of collophanite are fine disseminated particle size, poor mineral liberation degree, and serious argillization. The selection of foam-controlled collectors, efficient dispersing inhibitors and classified desliming process will be necessary for improving flotation index. These results provide a technical reference for subsequent development and utilization of collophanite resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Froth Flotation)
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Review

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21 pages, 8588 KiB  
Review
Difficulties and Recent Achievements in Flotation Separation of Fluorite from Calcite—An Overview
by Junwei Huang, Qiwu Zhang, Hongchao Li and Chao Wang
Minerals 2022, 12(8), 957; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12080957 - 28 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2344
Abstract
As an important strategic non-metallic mineral resource, fluorite has been widely used in various industrial fields, such as metallurgy, optics and semiconductor manufacturing, as well as fluorine-related chemical engineering. Since the major gangue minerals of fluorite ore are silicate and carbonate ones, flotation [...] Read more.
As an important strategic non-metallic mineral resource, fluorite has been widely used in various industrial fields, such as metallurgy, optics and semiconductor manufacturing, as well as fluorine-related chemical engineering. Since the major gangue minerals of fluorite ore are silicate and carbonate ones, flotation is the main beneficiation method for the concentration. Compared with the relatively easy operation for silicate-type fluorite ore, fluorite concentration from calcite has always been the most difficult challenge in the field of mineral processing. In this review, analyses of the fundamental reasons for the difficulties of flotation separation of fluorite from calcite are performed, from the similar surface properties of both calcium minerals to the deterioration by the interference of dissolved ions in the pulp during grinding and flotation. Recent achievements in the flotation separation of fluorite from calcite as the main contents are comprehensively summarized, covering all aspects of flotation reagents of collectors, depressants and modifiers. Finally, successful examples of industrial practices for fluorite and calcite flotation separation are introduced. This overview provides a detailed and comprehensive reference source for the current research status of fluorite and calcite flotation separation, and some suggestions for future research are provided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Froth Flotation)
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