Effect of Surface Cleaning on Differential Flotation of Sulfide Minerals

摘要

The contamination of mineral surfaces by hydrolyzable metal ions is a common problem in commercial flotation circuits. To achieve selective flotation separation, the mineral surfaces may have to be cleaned to remove the harmful metal ionic species and to turn the surfaces to their original states. Various complexing agents can be used for this purpose. In this study, citric acid was tested. The results show that citric acid could be used to eliminate the detrimental effects of Ca~(II) on the flotation separation of chalcopyrite from galena by dextrin. It depressed Pb~(II) -activated sphalerite in a weakly acidic medium when the concentration of the activating Pb~(II) was at a high level, and did not have any effect when the Pb~(II) concentration was relatively low. When the citric acid was used to treat Cu~(II) -activated pyrite, it actually improved the pyrite flotation.