Comprehensive Assessment of Flotation Reagents by Their Influence on Metal Losses and Flotation Selectivity

This paper proposes a method for quickly estimating the average flotation capacity of minerals according to the kinetic experiment without finding the flotation spectrum at which the first moments of distribution are calculated by the coefficients of the polynomial approximation of the logarithmic form of the kinetics. Using the example of copper-nickel ore, it is shown that the application of this method is effective in the multiparameter problem of comparative assessment of reagents. The ten parameters assessed included the average floatability of the target minerals (chalcopyrite and pentlandite), pyrrhotite and rock; the flotation selectivity coefficients of target minerals relative to pyrrhotite and rock; and the levels of copper and nickel losses from bulk flotation tailings. A visual representation of the interdependencies of parameters is achieved using diagrams showing the effect of flotation reagents on groups of parameters: average flotation, selectivity coefficients, metal losses, and selectivity relative to rock. The influence of butyl xanthate, Aeroflot, diesel fuel, and waste rock depressants-carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and acidified water glass (with a total consumption of 130 g/t collectors, 5-10 g/t diesel fuel, 200 g/t CMC, acidified water glass-500 g/t)-on the estimated parameters under conditions of collective flotation is determined. It is found that the addition of Aeroflot and diesel fuel to the main reagent collector xanthate increases the selectivity of pentlandite and chalcopyrite flotation relative to pyrrhotite and rock-forming component. The introduction of acidified liquid glass into the reagent mode increases the selectivity of the flotation of nickel and copper sulfides relative to the rock. CMC additives impair the selectivity of copper flotation. The quantitative effects of each individual parameter are taken into account in the integral rating assessment of the prospects of using reagent combinations for copper-nickel ore in terms of a set of ten parameters. The proposed method can be further used for a mass comparative evaluation of flotation reagents.