A novel decanedioic hydroxamic acid collector for the flotation separation of bastnasite from calcite

In this work, decanedioic hydroxamic acid (DDHA) was introduced as a novel collector for the flotation separation of bastnasite and calcite, and the results were compared with those obtained for the conventional hydroxamic acid collectors benzohydroxamic acid (BHA) and octyl hydroxamic acid (OHA). The microflotation results showed that DDHA had better selectivity than BHA and OHA for the flotation of bastnasite from calcite. The flotation of artificially mixed minerals confirmed that the effective separation of bastnasite from calcite could be realized in the presence of DDHA. The zeta potentials of mineral surfaces with or without these collectors were measured, and the results indicated that DDHA strongly interacted with the bastnasite surface but was not adsorbed on the calcite surface.