A macromolecular depressant for galena and its flotation behavior in the separation from molybdenite. (1st October 2020) - Zhang, Xingrong
Highlights: A macromolecule PAM-ATU was employed as a galena depressant. PAM-ATU could realize the separation of molybdenite from galena at pH around 10.5. PAM-ATU could adsorb on galena surface via chemisorption by FT-IR and XPS analysis. Abstract: In the present research, a macromolecular depressant poly(acrylamide-allylthiourea) (PAM-ATU) was explored to depress galena in the flotation separation from molybdenite. Its flotation behavior was evaluated by micro-flotation tests. The micro-flotation results revealed that PAM-ATU could depress galena strongly at 4.0 mg/L within pH 6.0–12.0, while molybdenite was found sensitive to the pH. At pH around 10.5, molybdenite showed a relatively good floatability with a nearly 80.0% recovery in the presence of 4.0 mg/L PAM-ATU. The flotation separation results for artificially mixed minerals proved that 1.0 mg/L PAM-ATU could selectively depress galena well. FT-IR and XPS analysis results demonstrated that PAM-ATU was likely to adsorb on galena surface by chemisorption. This study indicated that the synthesized PAM-ATU with low molecular weight might be a promising galena depressant in the flotation separation of Mo/Pb ores.