Research On The Froth Character And Sulfide Lead-zinc Ore Flotation With Combined Frothers

In the flotation,the selection of frother could bring different froth characters,which may affect mineral separation efficiency.Using combined frother from the combination of two or more kinds of single frother to improve flotation results was very convenient.Lead and zinc resources in China were handling poor and complex,so optimized beneficiation technologies including selecting efficient frother and improving efficiency of resources using were essential.The foaming property and foaming stability about combined frother was tested by the foamscan instrument and using combined frother optimized flotation technology.Then we discuss the association between foam characters and actual mineral processing to explore the mechanism about the istructure of frother molecules changing foam characters.The process mineralogy research showed that a lead-zinc ore contained 1.07%of Pb and 4.02%of Zn in Fujian was refractory ore with complex mineral composition and main metal mineral such as sphalerite,galena,orpiment iron and chalcopyrite.The combined frother was mixtures of each two frothers among common alcohols frothers such as terpenic oil,cyclohexanol,MIBC and DL-2-Octanol.The foaming property and foaming stability about combined frother was tested by foamscan instrument.Results showed that the strong-to-weak sequence of the foaming stability of the four single frother was DL-2-Octanol,MIBC,cyclohexanol and terpenic oil.The strong-to-weak sequence of the foaming stability of these four frothers was DL-2-Octanol,MIBC,terpenic oil and cyclohexanol.The foaming property index was strengthened and then weakened with the increasing of mass ratio and the foaming stability index was weakened and then strengthened with the increasing of mass ratio.After deciding other flotation reagents,flotation test should be made by using single and combined frothers.Results showed that cyclohexanol was worse for flotation processing than other three frothers.Cyclohexanol combining with other three frothers had advantages over other single frothers.The mineral processing efficiency by using the frothers terpenic oil with more molecular weight combined with other three frothers containing less molecular weight was better than the frothers which three frothers containing litter molecular weight combining with each other MIBC containing short carbon chain combining terpenic oil could create more violedt synergistic effects than DL-2-Octanol containing long carbon chain.Flotation froth have optimum size,viscosity and froth layer thickness Using combined frother of Terpenic oil:MIBC=1:1 selected by the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method could improve concentrate grade and recovery effectively after closed-circuit test.The weak-to-strong sequence of VDW and the strong-to-weak of foaming property between each carbon chains was terpenic oil,MIBC and DL-2-Octanol cyclohexanol And cyclohexanol contacts between carboatomic rings had worse foaming property and foaming stability,which lead to worsen flotation efficiency.Different frother molecules covered the liquid phase,which led to the differences of VDW among each carbon chains,thus,the interfacial strength was not homogeneous,which brought about more froth and more secondary enrichment to improve concentrate grade and recovery effectively.