Influence Of Titanaugite On The Flotation Of Ilmenite

With exploiting mine deeply and the change of the whole technical process,the feed ore of Titanium Concentration Plant of Pan Steel Mining Company become fine.At present,the content of -19μm size frcation of titanium ore is about 35%,the distribution rate of TiO₂ is over 30%. Because of the limited beneficication technique,this part of materials is removed by classification in advance,but without recovery.It causes a large amount of metal loss.Nowdays,there is no systematic research work on this subject.This dissertation focuses on this problem and studies the effect of the main gangue mineral titanaugite on the flotation behavior of ilmenite.Based on the analysis of the mechanism, elimination effect was studied preliminary,which served as a useful guide to follow-up study.In the single mineral flotation tests,there are significant differences between ilmenite and titanaugite with sodium oleate as collector.The flotability pH range of ilmenite is 4～10 and in this range every size frcation has good flotability.-10μm size frcation is slightly poor.The flotability pH range of titanaugite is 5～7.5.The flotability of every size frcation is better than ilmenite.Through artificial mixed mineral flotation experiments,-10μm size frcation of titanaugite worsened the recovery of ilmenite seriously. Especially when the content is more than 40%,the recovery of ilmenite decreased greatly.Other coarse size frcation of titanaugite have less effect on the recovery of ilmenite.According to DLVO theory,this dissertation present three main factors which impact the interaction between ilmenite and titanaugite. The three main factors are surface potential,particle size and surface wettability.The absolute surface potential of ilmenite and titanaugite becomes higher with increasing pH and increases the repulsion between particles.When the concentration of sodium oleate in the solution is 1.5×10^-4mol/L,the larger the particle size,the greater the repulsion.The results of artificial mixed mineral test and scanning electron microscopy revealed that under the conditions micro-size fraction titanaugite cover the surface of ilmenite.Adding sodium oleate,mineral surface wettability decreased and increased the gravitational force between ilmenite and titanaugite.Addition of sodium silicate can reduce the effect of titanaugite on the floatability of ilmenite.EDLVO theoretical calculation results show that sodium silicate can reduce the gravitational force between ilmenite and titanaugite.Sediment test analysis confirms that sodium silicate can disperse titanaugite better.In the actual ore experiment,adding sodium silicate can achieve the flotation of the full size fraction and obtain better separation effect.