CLARIANT COLLECTORS FOR USE AS ALTERNATIVES TO XANTHATE COLLECTORS IN TRADITIONAL SULFIDE FLOTATION APPLICATIONS

摘要

Xanthates, first used in flotation in 1924, are reported to be the most widely used sulfur-containing collectors. They are widely considered to be the most important collectors for sulfide mineral flotation applications. Nevertheless, it is Clariant's experience that there is an increasingly strong push against using xanthate collectors in both new flotation plants and existing plants, i.e. many mining companies want to eliminate the use of xanthates from their flotation plants. This push for replacing xanthates is driven by three major factors: (i) simplification of flotation circuit through avoiding the use of multiple collectors where possible, (ii) elimination of the need for operational staff to handle large amounts of xanthate powder or pellets and (iii) problems with trying to safely discard contaminated packaging. Clariant Mining Solutions, in order to address this need, developed a series of liquid collectors, soluble in water, which are able to completely replace various xanthate collector types in practice. The overall flotation performance obtained with two such collectors is discussed in this paper.