The Effect of Different Auxiliary Collector in Flotation of Phosphate Ore

Abstract

Flotation is a main technique for extraction of elements from ores with suitable grades, which is based on separating valuable particles from unwanted particles. Apatite with the formula of P2O5 can be extracted by flotation method. There are some gangue components in apatite. Hematite is one of the most important gunge minerals in phosphate ore. Fatty acids are the traditional collectors for apatite flotation but they have a poor selectivity against phosphate minerals. So, auxiliary reagents are needed. In this work, we formulated two collector packages with the same fatty acids and Nonylphenol ethoxylated (NPE) as anionic and nonionic surfactants but different in auxiliary reagents, and made a comparison between them in apatite flotation. Auxiliary reagents are polyethylene oxide (PEO) and paraffin. The results indicated that selectivity due to utilize PEO is better but for recovery, using paraffin is suitable. PEO can improve selectivity of the collector but paraffin can increase the collecting ability.