SCHEELITE FLOTATION - A NEW SCHEME USING OLEOYL SARCOSINE AS COLLECTOR AND ALKYL OXINE AS MODIFIER

Scheelite was selectively floated from a low-grade calcitic run-of-mine ore (containing 0.28% WO3, 96.3% CaCO3 and 2.24% SiO2) with a 70.6% WO3 grade and a 70% recovery, using oleoyl sarcosine as collector, quebracho as depressant and alkyl oxine as modifier. A new scheme was developed in laboratory scale experiments to reach this grade and recovery. The scheme consisted of a slime floating stage by only frother addition upon conditioning the pulp with alkyl oxine, a regular flotation stage of scheelite by sarcosine addition and a shaking table operation to the final scheelite concentrate.