Recovery Enhancement of Ultrafine Wolframite through Hydrophobic Flocs Magnetic Separation

The recovery of ultrafine wolframite (<10 mu m) by using flocs magnetic separation was investigated. Magnetic-separation results showed that recovery was closely correlated with the particle size of wolframite, where ultrafine particles were difficult to capture. Hydrophobic particles induced by octyl hydroxamic acid (OHA) could generate flocs, which enlarged the apparent size of particles. Furthermore, the recovery of ultrafine wolframite by flocs magnetic separation was higher than that by conventional magnetic separation. These findings indicated that the recovery was related to the increase in the magnetic force due to the particles' size induced by hydrophobic flocculation.