Molecular structures and activity of organic depressants for marmatite,jamesonite and pyrite flotation

Ten kinds of organic depressants were used to investigate the depressing performance on marmatite and pyrite.Flotation results show that the organic compounds only with single group of hydroxyl(-OH),carboxyl(-COOH) or amino(-NH2) in molecule are ineffective in depressing marmatite,jamesonite and pyrite.The combinations of these functional groups still cannot enhance the depressing ability of organic depressant.The thioglycollic acid containing reductive functional group(-SH) has a good depressing performance for marmatite and pyrite.The presence of benzene ring in molecule can enhance the depressing performance.The functional group electronegativity,hydrophilic-hydrophobic indexes and frontier orbital of organic depressants were calculated,and the criterion for the depressing effect of organic depressants to sulphide minerals was proposed.

Flotation separation of arsenopyrite from several sulphide minerals with organic depressants

In this paper, the separation of arsenopyrite from chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena with organic depressants （guergum and sodium humic ） was discussed, and the functioning mechanism of those organic depressants was discussed. The experimental results of monomineral flotation indicated that both guergum and sodium humic have depressing effect on arsenopyrite in the presence of ethyl xanthate. Guergum and sodium humic showed different depressing ability to pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena, and the higher the pH value in pulp, the stronger the depressing ability. Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometric study showed that the adsorption layer of xanthate on surface of minerals had been desorhed by the two organic depressants, and the selective desorption of the collector layer was found from different minerals. The xanthate cover on minerals surface was set free when dosage of the organic depressants was high enough. For artificially-mixed minerals, the separation of arsenopyrite from other sulphides was successfully realized by controlling dosage of the organic depressants. And sodium humic had been concentrates in a commercial Lead-Zinc concentrator.

Flotation separation of molybdenite and talc using tragacanth gum as depressant and potassium butyl xanthate as collector

Tragacanth gum(TG)was explored as a depressant to realize the flotation separation of molybdenite and talc.The flotation experiments indicated that when using potassium butyl xanthate(PBX)as a collector,molybdenite showed excellent floatability while talc was completely depressed by TG,thus realizing the flotation separation of the two minerals.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS)analysis results showed that TG was adsorbed on molybdenite surface via chemisorption.The results of contact angle measurement,Fourier transform infrared(FTIR)spectroscopy,and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry(ToF-SIMS)indicated that the pre-adsorption of TG on molybdenite could not hinder the further chemisorption of PBX on molybdenite.Because PBX has no collecting ability on talc,the flotation separation of molybdenite and talc came true using PBX to collect molybdenite and TG to depress talc.

Synthesis of glycerine-xanthate and its depressing mechanism in separation of marmatite from arsenopyrite

A small molecular organic depressor glycerine-xanthate was synthesized. The effect of glycerine-xanthate on the flotation of sulfide minerals was investigated based on a function of pH value and concentration of glycerine-xanthate through flotation experiments in the presence and absence of Cu^2＋. The results show that glycerinee-xanthate has a strong dressing effect on marmatite at pH〉6 and on arsenopyrite in weak acid and base conditions with butyl-xanthate as collector. In the presence of glycerine -xanthate, marmatite is activated by addition of Cu^2＋, but arsenopyrite cannot be activated and remains unfloatable. So the selective separation can be achieved for two minerals. The depression of glycerine-xanthate on sulfide minerals was discussed based on the radical electronegative calculation and the theory of HSAB. Infrared spectrum shows that there are some -OH and-CSS-in glycedne-xanthate molecule, which competes with butyl-xanthate on the mineral surface. As a result of many hydrophilic groups in glycerine-xanthate, the surfaces of marmatite and arsenopyrite become hydrophilic, thus the flotation of marmatite and arsenopyrite is depressed. The collector is adsorbed preferentially on the surface of marmatite and it shows a better floatability in the presence of Cu^2＋, whereas, the surface of arsenopyrite absorbs glycerine-xanthate and the flotation of arsenopyrite is depressed by glycerine-xanthate.