Recovery of Ultrafine Barite from Mill Wastes

摘要

The Bureau of Mines conducted flotation tests on a mixture of barite waste materials from Nevada in which essentially all of the barite values were finer than 20 micrometers. Flotation variables investigated in these tests were the effects of (1) sodium silicate as a pulp dispersant, (2) sodium hydroxide as a pH modifier, (3) increased amounts of sodium cetyl sulfate, (4) conditioning time and (5) solids content during conditioning. In addition to the flotation tests, a selective barite flocculation process was developed to treat extremely fine barite. A barite concentrate containing 96.5 percent BaSO4 with an attendant recovery of 82.1 percent of the barite was produced by selective flocculation. A process patent application has been filed based on this process.