Influence of monovalent and divalent cations on monazite flotation

Understanding of flotation mechanism of monazite with oleate collector in saline water is essential for the rare earth mining industry. This work investigates the flotation performance of monazite in the presence of different ions such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+. The research integrates flotation ex...

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Published inColloids and surfaces. A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects Vol. 653; p. 129975
Main Authors Jung, Moonchul, Tadesse, Bogale, Dick, Craig, Logan, Alex, Dyer, Laurence, Albijanic, Boris
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 20.11.2022
Subjects
Flotation
monazite
saline water
surface chemistry
Flotation
surface chemistry
monazite
saline water
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Summary:Understanding of flotation mechanism of monazite with oleate collector in saline water is essential for the rare earth mining industry. This work investigates the flotation performance of monazite in the presence of different ions such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+. The research integrates flotation experiments with colloid and surface characterizations using zeta potential, XPS and UV adsorption. The results showed that the presence of divalent metal ions (Mg2+, Ca2+) was highly detrimental to monazite flotation while the presence of monovalent metal ions (K+ and Na+) affected monazite flotation slightly only. The reason is that oleate formed insoluble products with divalent metal ions while the opposite is true in the case of monovalent metal ions. Therefore, the amount of soluble oleate ions in the presence of divalent ions was significantly reduced, resulting in less adsorption of oleate ions on monazite particles and thus reduced monazite recovery. The reduced adsorption of oleate on monazite was confirmed using XPS and UV adsorption experiments. This work explains the detrimental effect of various metal ions in saline water on monazite flotation. [Display omitted] •Flotation of monazite was investigated in the presence of different cations.•Divalent ions (Ca2+ and Mg2+) dramatically reduced flotation recovery of monazite.•Monovalent ions (Na+ and K+) affected slightly monazite flotation.•Oleate adsorption was lower in the presence of Ca2+ than Mg2+.•Oleate concentration was reduced by forming insoluble precipitates with Ca2+ and Mg2+.
ISSN:0927-7757
1873-4359
DOI:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.129975