Influence of microbubble on fine wolframite flotation

Abstract

The recovery of fine wolframite is low when using traditional flotation that does not use a microbubble. In this study, a microbubble was introduced into the fine wolframite flotation sys-tem; −20μm wolframite was used as an experiment sample and octyl hydroxamic acid as the collec-tor. The recovery of microbubble flotation reached 84.07%, which is about 12.04% higher than that of traditional flotation. A single-factor flotation experiment, high-speed camera analysis, and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) analysis were used to study the influence of microbubbles on the flotation of fine wolframite. The results show that fine wolframite will more easily agglomerate under the action of microbubbles. The octyl hydroxamic acid adsorbed on the surface of wolframite treated with microbubbles is denser and more abundant.