Fluorite (CaF2) is an important mineral resource that is used in many industries as a fluxing agent for production of hydrofluoric acid and steel making, as building materials, etc. As the demand for fluorite continues to increase, there has been a steady rise in the price of higher-quality fluorite ores.
Flotation technology is the most commonly used method for beneficiation of fluorite, that is, for production of fluorite concentrates of up to 98% purity. In flotation of fluorite ores, fatty acids are the most popular collectors. However, the flotation performance of these collectors is highly dependent on the pulp temperature. At low pulp temperatures, their collecting ability declines due to their low water solubility and activity. To improve flotation efficiency, pulp heating is generally applied, with the pulp heated to 35~85℃. Pulp heating inevitably increases production cost. Therefore, developing new collectors with good collecting ability at low temperature is of great economic interest.
Although fatty acids have been employed as collectors in fluorite flotation, flotation mechanisms of fluorite using fatty acid amide have not yet been revealed.
Jong Kwang Sok, a researcher at the Faculty of Mining Engineering, has succeeded in synthesizing a new collector for fluorite flotation from EvodiaeFructus oil by mixing sodium fatty acid and fatty acid amide. He evaluated the relationship between the flotation behavior and mechanism of the collector onto fluorite through micro-flotation tests, zeta potential, AFM measurements and quantum mechanics simulations. The flotation results showed that this synthesized collector could float fluorite very well in a pH range of 8.5~9.5 at the acid number of 120mgKOH/g and it exhibits excellent collecting capacity for fluorite even at low slurry temperature (6.5℃). AFM analysis data correlated with quantum mechanics simulation results showed that compared to sodium oleic acid or oleamide, their mixture has better chemical adsorption ability on fluorite surfaces.
You can find more information about this in his paper “Flotation Mechanism of a Novel Synthesized Collector from Evodiaefructus onto Fluorite Surfaces” in “Minerals Engineering” (SCI).
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