Study on the pre-treatment of oxidized zinc ore prior to flotation

• Published in: International journal of minerals, metallurgy and materials Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 117 - 122
• Main Authors: He, Dong-sheng, Chen, Yun, Xiang, Ping, Yu, Zheng-jun, Potgieter, J. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing University of Science and Technology Beijing 01.02.2018; Springer Nature B.V; School of Resource and Civil Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China%Hunan Huaqi Resources and Environment Science & Technology Development Co. Ltd., Zhuzhou 412005, China%School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa
• Subjects: Beneficiation; Ceramics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composites; Corrosion and Coatings; Dispersion; Flotation; Glass; Hydrocyclones; Iron; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Minerals; Natural Materials; Particle size; Pretreatment; Reagents; Slime; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Tribology; Zinc ores; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides; 锌氧化物;锌矿石;铁矿物质;学习;相互作用;条件优化;软泥;消瘦; zinc oxide ores; hydrocyclone de-sliming; flotation; magnetic deferrization
• ISSN: 1674-4799; 1869-103X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12613-018-1554-2

The pre-treatment of zinc oxide bearing ores with high slime content is important to ensure that resources are utilized optimally. This paper reports an improved process using hydrocyclone de-sliming, dispersion reagents, and magnetic removal of iron minerals for the pre-treatment of zinc oxide ore with a high slime and iron content, and the benefits compared to traditional technologies are shown. In addition, this paper investigates the damage related to fine slime and iron during zinc oxide flotation, the necessity of using hydrocyclone de-sliming together with dispersion reagents to alleviate the influence of slime, and interactions among hydrocyclone de-sliming, reagent dispersion, and magnetic iron removal. Results show that under optimized operating conditions the entire beneficiation technology results in a flotation concentrate with a Zn grade of 34.66% and a recovery of 73.41%.