A novel chemical scheme for flotation of rutile from eclogite tailing

Abstract

A novel chemical scheme for the flotation of rutile from eclogite tailings has been developed in this work. It consists of lead ion as the activator, sodium fluorosilicate (SF) as the depressant, and styryl phosphonic acid (SPA) and n-octyl alcohol (OCT) as the collector. By using the proposed scheme to treat a feed ore of 4.5% TiO2, a rougher concentrate of grade 84.47% TiO2 was achieved with the recovery of 61.5%. Also, the scheme made a high flotation rate for rutile. The scheme was applied to closed-circuit flotation (one-stage rougher flotation, two-stage scavenger flotation and two-stage cleaner flotation), produced a concentrate of 92% TiO2 with the recovery of 70%. It is shown that the new chemical scheme would be a potential one for the effective separation of rutile from eclogite ores.