Abstract:
In order to solve the problems of high cost, requiring large usage, toxicity, difficult to degrade and weak foaming ability for the hydroxamic acid collectors used in bastnaesite flotation, a new type of halogenated lauric acid collector WN−01 was developed and used as the collector for the flotation of the bastnaesite. The experimental results showed that compared to the pure lauric acid as the collector for bastnaesite flotation, the REO grade and recovery of concentrate obtained by the halogenated lauric acid collector WN−01 increased 4.45 percentage points and 36.86 percentage points, respectively. The suitable conditions for the bastnaesite flotation with collector WN−01 were a slurry pH of around 8.5, a pulp temperature of 30 ℃, a collector WN−01 dosage of 150 mg/L and a depressant water glass dosage of 120 mg/L. Under these conditions, an open circuit flotation process of 1 time roughing, 3 times concentrating, 2 times scavenging was used to treat the bastnaesite ore with a REO grade of 26.57%, the flotation concentrate of REO grade of 49.18% and REO recovery of 80.72% was obtained. The testing and analysis results of flotation product indicated that the flotation concentrate was mainly bastnaesite with minute quantity of fluorite. The flotation tailings were almost quartz and wollastonite. The above results revealed that the modified fatty acid collector WN−01 had excellent collecting ability and selectivity, which could replace the hydroxamic acid collectors in bastnaesite flotation to achieve green and efficient flotation processes.