Influencing mechanisms of sodium hexametaphosphate on molybdenite flotation using sea water

Flotation using sea water has been considered as a promising alternative to concentrate molybdenite (MoS2) under alkaline conditions due to scarcity of fresh water and increasingly strict regulations on the quality of discharged water. However, the MoS2 recovery with sea water during flotation has not been satisfactory, owing to the depressing effects from the hydrophilic metallic species onto MoS2 surface. This study combines experimental and theoretical studies of MoS2 flotation to investigate how the physicochemical properties of MoS2 vary with the addition of a dispersant, sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP), and in sea and fresh water. Our experimental results show that the addition of SHMP during flotation has increased the recovery of MoS2, via reducing the adsorption of the hydrophilic metallic precipitation onto MoS2 surface. The DLVO calculation confirms that the addition of SHMP increases the floatability of MoS2 by dispersing the formed hydrophilic metallic precipitation (Mg(OH)(2) colloids) from the MoS2 surface, via reversing attraction force to repulsion force, thereby improving MoS2 flotation recovery.