Use of process water in reverse cationic flotation of iron ores

摘要

In general, water is becoming a scarce resource for mineral processing plants and in the arid regions the need of saving fresh water for the communities is imperative. Increasing rate of depletion of rivers and ground water is an alarming situation for many dry places. Hence, the mineral processing plants are focusing on the reuse of process water in their operations. But, process water contains high concentrations of ions which affect water quality and so the process it is used (Wang and Peng 2014). Alternatively, the use of sea water could be a sustainable source of water supply for the dry regions located close to sea. The distribution of earth's water is 97 % sea water, 2 % in the form of icecaps and glaciers, rest 1 % the fresh water (Greenlee et al. 2009). But then again, saline sea water compromises the flotation performance (Li et al. 2017).