ÖĞÜTME ŞARTLARININ GALENİT FLOTASYONUNA ETKİSİ

Abstract

It is well known that the water used in the milling process has an effect on the galvanic interaction when considering the surface properties of ore. Therefore, the milling conditions and equipments play a significant role on the efficiency of the sulphide mineral flotation. In the limited amount of work presented in the literature stated that the dry grinding prior to flotation is advantageous depending on the ore type and mineral structure. In this study, complex sulphide lead-zinc ore was used. The flotation performance of the samples prepared either by dry grinding in Loesche vertical roller mill or by wet grinding in a rod mill are compared and the effects of dry and wet grinding are evaluated.As a result of the flotation experiments carried out with dry and wet ground samples, it was observed that the selective flotation of galenite was better for dry grinding compare to the wet grinding. Considering the difference between dry and wet grinding resulted due to the pulp chemistry, parameters such flotation performance and pulp potential were investigated. SEM image analysis analysis of the studied size fractions revealed that no difference was observed in terms of the grain morphology under different grinding conditions (dry/wet). Electrochemical analysis of the pulp showed that the reducing conditions acquired during wet grinding hindered the flotation performance. The oxidizing conditions in the vertical mill increased the flotation performance however; selectivity decreased due to the undesired activity of the sphalerite. The flotation reagents used in this study were not adequate to depress sphalerite. Results showed that grinding the identical samples under different grinding conditions had a significant effect on the flotation performance due to the changes of the pulp chemistry

Keywords

• flotation
• dry grinding
• wet grinding
• vertical mill