Flotation separation of quartz from collophane using an amine collector and its adsorption mechanisms

Quartz is the dominant gangue mineral in siliceous phosphate ore. To obtain efficient concentration of phosphate minerals, the flotation separation of quartz and collophane using AY as a collector was studied in this paper. The adsorption mechanism of the collector on the surface of quartz and collophane were investigated by measuring zeta potential, contact angle, adsorption density, surface tension and analyzing FFIR spectra. It reveals that AY displays a stronger collecting ability for quartz relative to collophane at pulp pH 7, resulting in a separation window for the two minerals. When the dosage of collector was 50 mg/L, phosphate minerals could be concentrated from 23.96% to 30.18% P2O5 with a great recovery of 98.24%. Mechanism studies show that the interaction of the amine collector with quartz and with collophane is mainly through electrostatic attraction, whereas the cationic collector prefers adsorbing on the negatively charged quartz. This is also supported by measurement of minerals contact angle and collector's adsorption density. AY as a collector has a selective absorption on quartz rather than collophane. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.