INFLUENCE OF PARTICLES SHAPE CHARACTERISTICS OF GALENA ON THEIR FLOTABILITY UNDER THE FLOTATION BEHAVIOR

The distributions of particle sizes and shapes are of great importance to industries employing various materials in powdered form. The investigations have shown that shape and morphological properties of particles affected subsequent processes such as flotation. On the other hand, crushing and grinding are factors that cause creation some changes in physical and chemical characteristics of processing materials such as distributions of sizes and shapes. In this research, experimental studies to determine the shape properties and floatability of galena were performed on the products of ball and rod mills. Shape properties have been stated in terms of shape descriptors such as elongation, flatness, roundness, and relative width by measuring on the projections of particles using scanning electron microscope. The floatability characteristics of galena were determined by flotation technique using the laboratory flotation cell. Finally, some correlations were found between the shape properties and recovery rate of particles. The results have shown that the recovery rate decreases with increasing roundness and relative width, that these particles are slow floatable, i.e., elongated and flatted particles having higher recovery rate indicated more hydrophobicity and are fast floatable.