Froth flotation of a Merensky Reef platinum bearing ore using mixtures of SIBX with a dithiophosphate and a dithiocarbamate

摘要

The Bushveld igneous complex (BIC) situated in northern South Africa is the largest deposit of platinum group elements (PGE) in the world. Froth flotation is used to beneficiate these PGE ores in the BIC due to their close association with the base metal sulphides. The performance of the froth flotation process is largely dependent on the chemical additives used in the process. Consequently, chemicals, especially collectors, have been used in mixtures to combine the individual properties of the respective chemicals. Batch froth flotation tests were used to report on the concentrate grades and recoveries achieved by using molar mixture ratios of thiol collectors on a Merensky Reef platinum ore. Collector mixtures of a xanthate (SIBX) with a dithiophosphate (DTP) and a dithiocarbamate (DTC) at 80:20 and 60:40 mole% ratios respectively were considered. An increase in nickel recovery was observed when mixing SIBX with DTC and with DTP. however it came at the expense of the grade. The recovery increased with 11.47% by mixing DTC with the SIBX. while the DTP mixture increased the nickel recovery by 10.18%. An increase in copper recovery of 5.99% was only observed with the DTP mixtures.