Effect of hydrogen peroxide on selective flotation of chalcocite and enargite

Enargite is typically associated with chalcocite.Owing to the similarity in the flotation behaviors of these minerals,both minerals are reported to concentrate in the conventional flotation circuit.However,inorganic arsenic in enargite can decrease the copper concentrate quality and increase the operating cost of processing this concentrate.Separating these minerals is important for cleaner copper production to avoid these effects.In this context,this study investigated the effect of hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2))treatment on the flotation behavior of chalcocite and enargite.Flotation tests of pure and mixed minerals indicated that H_(2)O_(2)treatment reduced the floatability of chalcocite and enargite by forming sulfate and copper hydroxide on their surfaces.Despite the detrimental effect of the H_(2)O_(2)treatment,there was a narrow window of H_(2)O_(2)concentration for separating both minerals,in which enargite floated and chalcocite was depressed.This selective flotation behavior was caused by the rapid adsorption of potassium amyl xanthate(KAX)and lower surface oxidation of enargite compared with that of chalcocite.

Flotation performance and adsorption mechanism of styrene phosphonic acid as a collector to synthetic(Ce,La)2O3

The flotation performances of styrene phosphonic acid（SPA） to synthetic（Ce,La）2O3（REO）, calcium fluorite（CaF2） and fluorapatite（Ca5F（PO4）3） were investigated by flotation tests, flotation of synthetic mixed mineral, the surface adsorption capacity and the polarizing microscopy to solve the flotation separation problem of rare earth oxides from roasted concentrate. The flotation test results indicated that compared with CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3, SPA exhibited superior collecting performance to direct flotation recovery of REO and floated out above 90% REO at pH 3–6. However, the collecting ability of SPA to CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3 was extremely weak and the highest recovery was only 20% at pH 2–11. The flotation of synthetic mixed mineral showed that SPA was a good collector reagent for flotation of synthetic REO at pH 5, so REO, CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3 could be separated from roasted concentrate by using SPA as a collector. The surface adsorption capacity tests and polarizing microscopy results confirmed that SPA was adsorbed on REO surface, while CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3 were not. The adsorption mechanism of SPA to synthetic REO was studied by solution chemistry analysis of collector, the ζ-potential tests, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） analyses. The results indicated that SPA was physically adsorbed onto REO surface, which exhibited excellent flotation selectivity to REO against CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3.