Floatability of fine phosphate in a batch column flotation cell

Minerals & Metallurgical Processing , 2011, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 110-116

Al-Thyabat, S.; Yoon, R.-H.; Shin, D.

 In this work, the floatability of Jordanian phosphate slime (-38 μm) was evaluated in a batch column flotation cell, 100 cm high and 5 cm inner diameter. Flotation was conducted using sodium oleate as a collector and methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) as frother. Rougher flotation yielded concentrate assaying 29.19% P₂O₅ with 90.29% recovery at the following flotation parameters: 2.6 cm/s superficial gas velocity, 20 ppm frother dosage, 0.205 mM collector concentration and 40% weight solids. It was also found that conditioning with the same collector dosage but with a different solids weight percent gave different flotation results. However, pulp collector concentration was the key operating parameter; increasing collector dosage at the same solids weight percent decreased flotation recovery by 3%, while increasing solids weight percent at the same collector dosage increased phosphate recovery by 18%.