Many of the common hydrophobizing reagents currently used in flotation have raised the increasing environmental concern and hence there is a quest for environmentally friendly chemical additives that give similar or better performance than the more toxic conventional reagents. In this paper, we provide experimental evidence that the use of vegetable recycled oils (VRO) promotes the flotation recovery of copper minerals more selectively against pyrite than the conventional collector on seawater. In this research, copper sulphide ore flotation studies were performed in a 1.5 L EDEMET laboratory cell, in order to compare the recovery and the grade of copper obtained in the presence of VRO (sunflower) and traditional collectors such as potassium amyl xanthate (PAX) (highly collective) and thionocarbamate (AeroMx5160) (highly selective), in rougher stages. During these tests, MIBC 20 [g/ton] was used as frother and the pH was adjusted with lime at pH 8. The experiments were made in fresh water. The results indicated that a much higher selectivity for chalcopyrite was reached with VRO than with PAX and with AeroMx5160 the higher recovery. By comparing the metallurgical performance, results showed that the presence of VRO increased the recovery and the selectivity of PAX when 40 [g/t] PAX and 60 [g/t] VRO dosages were used. Meanwhile, in the case of the mixtures AeroMx5160/VRO the enrichment was increased compromising the recovery. According to these results, this work suggest that the use of vegetable recycled oil has the potential to be added to the existing array of flotation collectors and would represent a combined opportunity for both the mining and agricultural sectors, in order to reduce costs and minimize the impact on the environment.
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