The Interaction between Cations in Saline Water and Calcium Bentonite in Copper Flotation
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The Interaction between Cations in Saline Water and Calcium Bentonite in Copper Flotation Linbo Huang 1 & Siyu Song 1 & Guohua Gu 1 & Yanhong Wang 1 Received: 30 June 2020 / Accepted: 27 August 2020 # Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. 2020
Abstract In this study, the effect of cations, Na+ and Mg2+, in saline water on copper flotation in the presence of calcium bentonite was investigated. It was found that as the concentration of NaCl was increased, the copper recovery initially decreased and then increased to above 99%, while the copper grade initially increased and then decreased. In contrast, as the concentration of MgCl2 was increased, the copper recovery continuously increased, while the copper grade continuously decreased. The variation of copper recovery and grade was mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of pulp rheology and flotation solution chemistry. The underpinning mechanisms are the compressing electrical double layer and ion-exchange interaction between saline water and bentonite, which occur at the same time. Using saline water slightly affected the pulp rheology with a decrease in copper recovery at low NaCl concentration. Increasing the concentration of cations in saline water might even facilitate the flowing out of exchangeable cations, especially divalent cations, from the interlayer space of bentonite to the solution, resulting in the decrease of copper grade at high salt concentration. Keywords Flotation . Calcium bentonite . Saline water . Rheology . Ion exchange
1 Introduction In the mining industry, the depletion of high-quality ores increases the processing of low-quality ores that contain a high content of clay minerals. It is known that clay minerals have a deleterious effect on the mineral flotation process. However, different clay minerals have different effects on flotation. Clay minerals affect flotation performance through changing the pulp or froth phase. In the pulp phase, mineral slurries containing fine particles at higher solid concentrations could adversely affect flotation performance when processing highclay ores [1, 2]. It has been found that for bentonite with the increase in pulp viscosity, the flotation kinetics was decreased and the amount of froth was reduced, leading to the lower copper recovery, while kaolinite, which had less effect on pulp viscosity, was found to be reported in the flotation concentrate by entrainment [3]. In terms of talc, the copper recovery and grade were more related to the froth behaviour than pulp rheology, while the copper grade was decreased with the increase * Yanhong Wang [email protected] 1
School of Mineral Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan Province, China
of yield stress of the pulp in the presence of muscovite, which had a negligible influence on copper recovery [4]. In clay science, clay minerals are phyllosilicate minerals comprising silica tetrahedral (T) sheets and alumina octahedral (O) sheets joining together in certain proportions, with fine sizes [
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