2016, 147−154 Physicochemical Problems of Mineral Processing

Abstract: In this paper the importance of definition of hydrophobicity and aquaoleophilicity in terms of contact angle as well as the properties of water films in flotation and oil agglomeration were briefly presented. It was shown that the hysteresis of contact angle for a considered system depends on the way of measurement and geometry of the system due to the presence of other that excess pressure and capillary forces and buffering properties of the capillary force. It was suggested that, the measured advancing and receding contact angles should be, when possible, recalculated into the Young (rest, equilibrium) contact angle. It was discussed that quartz is not a good model of hydrophilic surface because its contact angle with a gas phase in water is not zero and that a spontaneous attachment between highly hydrophobic materials such as hydrocarbons and Teflon in dynamic system, such as flotation, does not occur

Application of near infrared sensors to preconcentration of hydrothermally-formed copper ore

Article© 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Near infrared sensors can be a very useful technique for the qualitative analysis of complex ores, and thus could be useful for the preconcentration of ores. In this paper, individual particles of hydrothermally-formed copper ore sampled from a mine in the Los Pozos mining district, northern Chile, were classified as product, middling and waste based on their near infrared response. The classification of copper bearing minerals (product) from gangue (waste) was considered for vibration combination bands at longer wavelengths from 2000 to 2400 nm. This region exhibits characteristic features for carbonates and hydroxyl gangue bearing minerals. The near infrared features at 1400 and 1900 nm were not considered favourable for classification and subsequent discrimination because they can be influenced by moisture and other environmental factors and are easily suppressed by iron-rich minerals. Two near infrared preconcentration strategies were applied for particle discrimination. Results indicate that targeting only the calcite (carbonate) dominated particles for discrimination as waste provided the best option for preconcentration. The near infrared discrimination analysis correlates well with mineralogical (QEMSCAN® and XRD) and elemental (XRF) data classification. The results indicate that near infrared spectroscopy is a suitable preconcentration method for supergene copper ore

Simultaneous Leaching of Seafloor Massive Sulfides and Polymetallic Nodules

Simultaneous leaching of seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) from Loki’s Castle on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR) and polymetallic nodules (PN) from Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Central Pacific Ocean was studied. Leaching tests were conducted using sulfuric acid and sodium chloride, at a temperature of 80 °C for 48 h under reflux. The effect of PN-to-SMS ratio was examined. It was shown that simultaneous leaching of two different types of marine resources was possible resulting in high dissolution rates of metals. The proposed process has many advantages as it does not require pyrometallurgical pretreatment, and yields solid products (i.e., silica, barite, elemental sulfur, albite, microcline, muscovite), which might be utilized for various industrial applications

Classification of Flotation Frothers

In this paper, a scheme of flotation frothers classification is presented. The scheme first indicates the physical system in which a frother is present and four of them i.e., pure state, aqueous solution, aqueous solution/gas system and aqueous solution/gas/solid system are distinguished. As a result, there are numerous classifications of flotation frothers. The classifications can be organized into a scheme described in detail in this paper. The frother can be present in one of four physical systems, that is pure state, aqueous solution, aqueous solution/gas and aqueous solution/gas/solid system. It results from the paper that a meaningful classification of frothers relies on choosing the physical system and next feature, trend, parameter or parameters according to which the classification is performed. The proposed classification can play a useful role in characterizing and evaluation of flotation frothers

Recent Advancements in Metallurgical Processing of Marine Minerals

Polymetallic manganese nodules (PMN), cobalt-rich manganese crusts (CRC) and seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) have been identified as important resources of economically valuable metals and critical raw materials. The currently proposed mineral processing operations are based on metallurgical approaches applied for land resources. Thus far, significant endeavors have been carried out to describe the extraction of metals from PMN; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it lacks a thorough review on recent developments in processing of CRC and SMS. This paper begins with an overview of each marine mineral. It is followed by a systematic review of common methods used for extraction of metals from marine mineral deposits. In this review, we update the information published so far in peer-reviewed and technical literature, and briefly provide the future perspectives for processing of marine mineral deposits

Oil agglomeration of metal-bearing shale in the presence of mixed cationic-anionic surfactants

This paper reports oil agglomeration of fine metal-bearing shale particles in the presence of cationic (dodecylamine hydrochloride) and anionic (sodium dodecyl sulfate) surfactants and their mixture. The experimental results demonstrated that there was a strong relationship between zeta potential, hydrophobic coagulation, oil agglomeration and particle hydrophobicity in the presence of cationic surfactant, whereas shale neither coagulated nor agglomerated in the presence of anionic surfactant. Addition of either anionic or cationic surfactant in emulsification of a bridging oil increased the size of agglomerates and reduced the concentration of surfactant used in the suspension. The results pointed to synergism between cationic and anionic surfactants in oil agglomeration. Based on the results obtained from this study, the mechanism of oil agglomeration of shale in the presence of ionic surfactants and their mixture was elucidated

Heterocoagulation of shale particles and bubbles in the presence of ionic surfactants

Adsorption of surfactants is one of the important feature governing interactions between particulate matters. When interactions occur between two particulates, which differ from each other, heterocoagulation takes place. This paper explains heterocoagulation of bubbles and carbonaceous metal-bearing shale particles. Heterocoagulation was experimentally studied using zeta potential, adsorption and contact angle tests. The results indicated that heterocoagulation in the presence of ionic (anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate SDS, and cationic dodecylamine hydrochloride DDA) surfactants was feasible. Based on the results, the heterocoagulation mechanism was evaluated, and thus the mechanism of shale flotation in the presence of ionic surfactants was elucidated

Surface roughness in bubble attachment and flotation of highly hydrophobic solids in presence of frother – experiment and simulations

In this paper, the kinetic of the three-phase contact (TPC) formation and the flotation recovery of highly hydrophobic solids with different surface roughness were studied in pure water and aqueous solutions of n-octanol. The surface roughness varied between 1 to 100 μm. It was found that there was a strong influence of surface roughness on both kinetics of TPC formation and flotation. The time of three phase contact formation and flotation rate were much faster for rough surfaces in both water and aqueous solutions of frother. Irrespective of the surface roughness, at above a certain frother dose, the attachment time increased and the flotation rate decreased. It was related to the presence of air at the hydrophobic solid surfaces. The mechanism of this prolongation of the time of TPC formation at the solid surfaces with different roughness due to the frother overdosage was discussed, and the experimental data were confirmed by numerical simulations

Kinetic separation curves based on process rate considerations

There are many graphical representations of separation results involving time as a crucial parameter determining the kinetics of a process. The graphical representations of results of separation are usually in the form of 2D plots relating two parameters which one of them is time. Time can also be utilized as a complex parameter such as a process rate. The plots involving time are called kinetic curves. Theoretically, the number of kinetic curves is infinite. The basic process kinetic curves, relating either yield (or recovery) and time can be modified to obtain numerous local and global efficiency curves. The global efficiency kinetic curves provide characteristic constants which do not change with the time and yield of a process. In this paper the local and global efficiency plots were created using experimental data which followed the so-called first order kinetics. It was shown that the integral 1st order kinetic equation provided the kinetic constant k which was numerically identical with the 1st order specific rate v, while their units were different (k, 1/min; v, %/(%·min). The global efficiency parameters plotted versus the maximum yield provided another type of plot, which can be called the limits kinetic curve. The limits kinetic curves are very useful for characterizing, quantification and classification of separation systems. The limits kinetic curves can be normalized providing one universal curve with a characteristic point, for instance, v50 indicating the specific rate (or kinetic) constant at the maximum recovery equal to 50%. The mathematical equation of the normalized limits kinetic curve was given in the paper

Control of glass surface wettability via esterification with n-alkyl alcohols

Surface wettability plays an essential role in many processes and materials applications. It depends mainly on the surface roughness and chemical composition, thus through a controlled modification of these parameters, the wettability can be restrained. Glass is an inorganic solid material, composed mainly of amorphous silica, which surface, due to the presence of reactive hydroxyl groups, can be quite easily chemically modified. This feature can be used to control the wettability of glass by reaction with organic compounds. In this study, the esterification of glass silanol groups with n-alkyl alcohols (Cn/H2n+1/OH, n=3, 4, 6, 8, 10) was employed to modify its wettability. The effect of such modification on the physicochemical properties of glass surface was comprehensively investigated and characterised by the water contact angle, surface free energy, zeta potential, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. We demonstrate that the wettability of the esterified glass surface is strongly dependent on both the chain length of used alcohol and modification time. The alcohol molecule binds to the glass surface through a Si-O-C bond, leading to the formation of a monolayer that does not significantly affect the surface morphology and zeta potential. Conducted studies provided a broader view of the influence of this technique for modifying surface wettability on its physicochemical properties