The Research Of Relationship Between Fe/Mn Ratio And Floatability Of Wolframite

Wolframite is the main source of tungsten, an intermediate between two end-members:ferberite and huebnerite. The previous researches have focused on flotation reagents, but ignore composition, which is also an important factor in wolframite flotation.In this paper, BHA/NaOl as collectors were adopted to study the relationship between Fe/Mn ratios and floatability of wolframite, the conclusions are illustrated as following:The flotability of wolframite changed with different Fe/Mn ratios. Micro flotation of wolframite which came from four mines (-38μm and-74+38μM) show that wolframite with high Fe/Mn ratio is more floatable with BHA as a collector while the NaOl’s collectability of wolframite with low Fe/Mn ratio is stronger. This phenomenon is exsist in the Miantowo wolframite flotation experiments, it can explan the high effiency collector mixtures of BHA-NaO1as well.The adsorption behavior of collectors on wolframite with d Fe/Mn ratios is different. Adsorption quantity tests show that BHA is easier adsorbed on the surface of high-Fe wolframite while NaOl prefers to be adsorbed on the surface of high-Mn wolframite. Both of them are chemisorption through infrared spectra study. Besides, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and its peak-differenating analysis show that a new ferric product emerged on the surface of wolframite only after addition of BHA, rather than NaOl. However, instead of BHA, a new manganese product appeared only after reaction with NaOl.The solution chemical calculation of reactions between metal ions (Fe2+, Mn2+and Fe3+which come from oxidation) and collectors explans aboved phenomenones. Through gragh of ΔG°-pH, the ΔG°of reaction between BHA and Fe2+/Fe3+is negatively higher than Mn2+, which means that BHA prefers to react with high-Fe woframite. On the other hand, ΔG°of reaction between NaOl and Mn2+is minimum when pH>9.5and the ΔG°of reactions are ranked as:Fe3+>Mn2+≈Fe2+,when pH<9.5. Thus, the best pH range for NaOl to collect wolframite is the same as minimum ΔG°of reaction between NaOl and Mn21, which means that the reaction between NaO1and Mn21determine the flotability of woframite.