Electrochemical Determination of Minor Elements in Zinc Flotation Concentrates

摘要

Characterization of complex assemblages of sulfides, such as ores or concentrates, is critical to pre-mine planning and post-mine waste characterization. An inexpensive and rapid method based on electrochemical detection is proposed to determine minor phases, that are usually associated with sphalerite (or marmatite), in zinc flotation concentrates. The information achieved by this method has been compared with the chemical and mineralogical composition obtained from X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). This methodology is applied to analyze galena, pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrothite and anglesite, in six zinc concentrates from different Mexican mine sites. With this novel experimental strategy it is possible to determine amounts of galena less than 1 %. Galvanic coupling between galena and pyrite interferes in the determination of pyrite when the galena content reaches 10 % in the concentrate.