A process for the controlled bubble flotation of fine particle zinc oxide ores

Abstract

This invention relates to a controlled-foam flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore, belonging to the field of mineral processing technology. Addressing the problems of deteriorating separation indices due to slime recycling, large and poorly fluid foam, stable and highly viscous foam layers, and poor flotation performance in the flotation process of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, this invention improves the flotation process and recovery indices by innovating the flotation process and developing novel flotation reagents. Specifically, it employs a fine scavenging operation to process middlings separately, avoiding their return to roughing and cleaning operations, thus preventing repeated recycling of slime in these operations and directly producing zinc concentrate. Furthermore, it uses a foam control agent to regulate the flotation foam of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, thereby increasing its ore-carrying capacity and improving the stability, viscosity, and fluidity of the foam layer. This facilitates the smooth flotation process of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, achieving higher flotation indices and promoting the efficient recovery of complex and difficult-to-process zinc ore resources.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a controlled flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore, belonging to the field of mineral processing technology. Background Technology

[0002] Currently, most mining companies focus on developing and utilizing zinc sulfide ore, while the resource utilization rate of zinc oxide ore is low. This is because zinc oxide ore has a complex mineral composition, high soluble salt content, and severe mudification. Zinc oxide minerals have similar properties to some gangue minerals, resulting in unsatisfactory sorting indicators and unstable industrial production processes. This leads to a large amount of zinc oxide ore being stockpiled, which not only wastes resources but also has an adverse impact on the surrounding ecological environment.

[0003] Sulfide-amine flotation is a major beneficiation method for zinc oxide ores. However, this method is severely affected by slime and soluble salts, making it unsuitable for ores containing large amounts of mica, sericite, chlorite, and carbonaceous shale. Desliming flotation can address these issues to some extent, but the removed slime contains a significant portion of zinc oxide minerals, resulting in poor overall recovery of zinc oxide minerals. The adverse effects of slime on sulfide-amine flotation lie in the fact that slime adhering to amines attaches to the flotation foam, effectively "armoring" the flotation foam with both slime and amine reagents. This leads to a long lifespan and high stability of the flotation foam, increasing the amount of middlings recycled. Furthermore, the fluidity of the ore-laden foam becomes extremely poor and difficult to eliminate, causing severe "fountain run-off," making the flotation process difficult to control and hindering production. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This invention addresses the problems encountered in the flotation of fine-grained zinc oxide ores during the process, such as deterioration of separation indicators due to slime recycling, large foam volume and poor fluidity, stable and high viscosity of the foam layer, and poor flotation effect. It proposes a foam-controlled flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ores, which involves separately processing the middlings product during fine scavenging without returning it to the roughing and cleaning operations. This avoids repeated recycling of slime in the roughing and cleaning processes, directly producing zinc concentrate. Furthermore, a foam-controlling agent is used to regulate the flotation foam of the fine-grained zinc oxide ores, thereby improving its ore-carrying capacity and enhancing the stability, viscosity, and fluidity of the foam layer.

[0005] A controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore, the specific steps of which are as follows:

[0006] (1) Crush and grind the zinc oxide ore to a concentration of more than 90% of zinc oxide mineral monomers, and add water to adjust the slurry to a mass percentage concentration of 25-35%;

[0007] (2) Sodium sulfide, inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent are added to the slurry obtained in step (1) in sequence, and roughing operation is carried out to obtain roughing concentrate and roughing tailings;

[0008] (3) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough tailings obtained in step (2) in sequence, and perform a scavenging operation to obtain a scavenging concentrate and a scavenging tailings.

[0009] (4) The tailings obtained from the primary scavenging process in step (3) are subjected to secondary scavenging to obtain secondary scavenging concentrate and secondary scavenging tailings;

[0010] (5) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough concentrate obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out a cleaning operation to obtain a first-clean concentrate and a first-clean tailings;

[0011] (6) The primary concentrate obtained in step (5) is subjected to secondary refining to obtain zinc concentrate I and secondary refining tailings;

[0012] (7) The primary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (3), the secondary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (4), the primary cleaning tailings obtained in step (5), and the secondary cleaning tailings obtained in step (6) are combined to form a mixed middlings. Collectors and defoaming agents are added to the mixed middlings in sequence, and fine scavenging is carried out to obtain zinc concentrate II and fine scavenging tailings. The fine scavenging tailings are returned and incorporated into the secondary scavenging operation.

[0013] (8) The zinc concentrate I obtained in step (6) and the zinc concentrate II obtained in step (7) are combined to obtain the zinc concentrate product. The secondary scavenging tailings obtained in step (4) are flotation tailings.

[0014] The inhibitor is a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium hexametaphosphate, the collector is a mixture of laurylamine and sodium cocoyl sulfate, and the foam control agent is a mixture of lauryl alcohol, polyether, and sorbitan monostearate.

[0015] The zinc content in the fine-grained zinc oxide ore in step (1) is 5.2% to 9.6% by mass.

[0016] For each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 8-14 kg of sodium sulfide, 2000-3000 g of inhibitor, 340-460 g of collector and 160-240 g of defoaming agent are added to the slurry in step (2) roughing operation.

[0017] For every ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 400-600g of inhibitor, 80-120g of collector and 40-60g of defoaming agent are added to the roughing tailings slurry of the first scavenging operation in step (3).

[0018] For every ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 300-500g of inhibitor, 40-60g of collector and 50-70g of defoaming agent are added to the rough concentrate slurry of the first fine-grained operation in step (5).

[0019] For every ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 70-90g of collector and 60-80g of defoaming agent are added to the mixed middlings slurry in step (7) fine scavenging.

[0020] Based on the mass fraction of the inhibitor being 100%, sodium carbonate accounts for 65-75% and sodium hexametaphosphate accounts for 25-35%.

[0021] Based on a collector mass fraction of 100%, laurylamine accounts for 55-65%, and sodium cocoyl sulfate accounts for 35-45%.

[0022] Based on a foam control agent mass fraction of 100%, lauryl alcohol accounts for 40-50%, polyether accounts for 35-45%, and sorbitan monostearate accounts for 10-20%.

[0023] The beneficial effects of this invention are:

[0024] (1) The present invention adds a fine scavenging operation to process the middlings products separately. The middlings produced by the fine and scavenging operations are not returned to the roughing and fine operations, thus avoiding the repeated recycling of slime in the roughing and fine operations. The flotation process of fine-grained zinc oxide ore is improved through the innovation of the flotation process.

[0025] (2) The foam control agent developed in this invention regulates the structure and performance of flotation foam in fine-grained zinc oxide ore, changes the interaction between liquid films, accelerates the liquid discharge rate and gas diffusion rate of the liquid film, reduces the lifespan of flotation foam, and improves the stability, viscosity and fluidity of the foam layer, which is conducive to the smooth flotation process of fine-grained zinc oxide ore and achieves satisfactory separation effect.

[0026] (3) The present invention has low mineral processing cost, good flotation index, simple operation and strong controllability. It economically and efficiently solves the problems of deterioration of the separation index of slime circulation, large amount of foam and poor fluidity, stable foam layer and high viscosity, and poor flotation effect in the flotation process of fine-grained zinc oxide ore. It realizes controlled flotation recovery of fine-grained zinc oxide ore and promotes the efficient utilization of complex and difficult-to-process zinc ore resources. Attached Figure Description

[0027] Figure 1 This is a process flow diagram of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0028] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited to the content described.

[0029] In the following examples of the present invention, the inhibitor is a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium hexametaphosphate, the collector is a mixture of laurylamine and sodium cocoyl sulfate, and the foam control agent is a mixture of lauryl alcohol, polyether, and sorbitan monostearate.

[0030] Example 1: In this example, based on the mass fraction of the inhibitor being 100%, sodium carbonate accounts for 65% and sodium hexametaphosphate accounts for 35%; based on the mass fraction of the collector being 100%, lauryl amine accounts for 55% and sodium cocoyl sulfate accounts for 45%; based on the mass fraction of the foam control agent being 100%, lauryl alcohol accounts for 40%, polyether accounts for 40%, and sorbitan monostearate accounts for 20%.

[0031] like Figure 1 As shown, a controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore comprises the following steps:

[0032] (1) The zinc oxide ore is crushed and ground to a concentration of more than 90% zinc oxide mineral monomers, and water is added to adjust the slurry to a mass percentage concentration of 25%; wherein the mass percentage content of zinc in the fine-grained zinc oxide ore is 5.2%;

[0033] (2) Sodium sulfide, inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent are added to the slurry obtained in step (1) in sequence, and roughing operation is carried out to obtain roughing concentrate and roughing tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 8 kg of sodium sulfide, 2000 g of inhibitor, 340 g of collector and 160 g of defoaming agent are added to the slurry of the roughing operation.

[0034] (3) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough tailings obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out one scavenging operation to obtain one scavenging concentrate and one scavenging tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, add 400g inhibitor, 80g collector and 40g defoaming agent to the rough tailings slurry of one scavenging operation.

[0035] (4) The tailings obtained in step (3) are subjected to secondary scavenging to obtain secondary scavenging concentrate and secondary scavenging tailings. The secondary scavenging tailings are flotation tailings.

[0036] (5) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough concentrate obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out a first cleaning operation to obtain a first cleaning concentrate and a first cleaning tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, add 300g inhibitor, 40g collector and 50g defoaming agent to the rough concentrate slurry of the first cleaning operation.

[0037] (6) The primary concentrate obtained in step (5) is subjected to secondary refining to obtain zinc concentrate I and secondary refining tailings;

[0038] (7) The primary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (3), the secondary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (4), the primary cleaning tailings obtained in step (5), and the secondary cleaning tailings obtained in step (6) are combined to form a mixed middlings. Collectors and defoaming agents are added to the mixed middlings in sequence, and fine scavenging is carried out to obtain zinc concentrate II and fine scavenging tailings. The fine scavenging tailings are returned and incorporated into the secondary scavenging operation. 70g of collector and 60g of defoaming agent are added to the mixed middlings slurry of the fine scavenging operation per ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore.

[0039] (8) The zinc concentrate I obtained in step (6) and the zinc concentrate II obtained in step (7) are combined to obtain the zinc concentrate product;

[0040] In this embodiment, the zinc flotation recovery rate was 85.8%.

[0041] Example 2: In this example, based on the mass fraction of the inhibitor being 100%, sodium carbonate accounts for 70% and sodium hexametaphosphate accounts for 30%; based on the mass fraction of the collector being 100%, lauryl amine accounts for 60% and sodium cocoyl sulfate accounts for 40%; based on the mass fraction of the foam control agent being 100%, lauryl alcohol accounts for 45%, polyether accounts for 45%, and sorbitan monostearate accounts for 10%.

[0042] like Figure 1 As shown, a controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore comprises the following steps:

[0043] (1) The zinc oxide ore is crushed and ground to a concentration of more than 90% of the zinc oxide mineral monomers, and water is added to adjust the slurry to a mass percentage concentration of 30%; wherein the mass percentage content of zinc in the fine-grained zinc oxide ore is 7.4%;

[0044] (2) Sodium sulfide, inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent are added to the slurry obtained in step (1) in sequence, and roughing operation is carried out to obtain roughing concentrate and roughing tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 11 kg of sodium sulfide, 2500 g of inhibitor, 400 g of collector and 200 g of defoaming agent are added to the slurry of the roughing operation.

[0045] (3) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough tailings obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out one scavenging operation to obtain one scavenging concentrate and one scavenging tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, add 500g inhibitor, 100g collector and 50g defoaming agent to the rough tailings slurry of one scavenging operation.

[0046] (4) The tailings obtained in step (3) are subjected to secondary scavenging to obtain secondary scavenging concentrate and secondary scavenging tailings. The secondary scavenging tailings are flotation tailings.

[0047] (5) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough concentrate obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out a first cleaning operation to obtain a first cleaning concentrate and a first cleaning tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, add 400g inhibitor, 50g collector and 60g defoaming agent to the rough concentrate slurry of the first cleaning operation.

[0048] (6) The primary concentrate obtained in step (5) is subjected to secondary refining to obtain zinc concentrate I and secondary refining tailings;

[0049] (7) The primary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (3), the secondary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (4), the primary cleaning tailings obtained in step (5), and the secondary cleaning tailings obtained in step (6) are combined to form a mixed middlings. Collectors and defoaming agents are added to the mixed middlings in sequence, and fine scavenging is carried out to obtain zinc concentrate II and fine scavenging tailings. The fine scavenging tailings are returned and incorporated into the secondary scavenging operation. 80g of collector and 70g of defoaming agent are added to the mixed middlings slurry of the fine scavenging operation per ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore.

[0050] (8) The zinc concentrate I obtained in step (6) and the zinc concentrate II obtained in step (7) are combined to obtain the zinc concentrate product;

[0051] In this embodiment, the zinc flotation recovery rate was 87.1%.

[0052] Example 3: In this example, based on the mass fraction of the inhibitor being 100%, sodium carbonate accounts for 75% and sodium hexametaphosphate accounts for 25%; based on the mass fraction of the collector being 100%, lauryl amine accounts for 65% and sodium cocoyl sulfate accounts for 35%; based on the mass fraction of the foam control agent being 100%, lauryl alcohol accounts for 50%, polyether accounts for 35%, and sorbitan monostearate accounts for 15%.

[0053] like Figure 1 As shown, a controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore comprises the following steps:

[0054] (1) The zinc oxide ore is crushed and ground to a concentration of more than 90% of the zinc oxide mineral monomers, and water is added to adjust the slurry to a mass percentage concentration of 35%; wherein the mass percentage content of zinc in the fine-grained zinc oxide ore is 9.6%;

[0055] (2) Sodium sulfide, inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent are added to the slurry obtained in step (1) in sequence, and roughing operation is carried out to obtain roughing concentrate and roughing tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 14 kg of sodium sulfide, 3000 g of inhibitor, 460 g of collector and 240 g of defoaming agent are added to the slurry of the roughing operation.

[0056] (3) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough tailings obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out one scavenging operation to obtain one scavenging concentrate and one scavenging tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, add 600g inhibitor, 120g collector and 60g defoaming agent to the rough tailings slurry of one scavenging operation.

[0057] (4) The tailings obtained in step (3) are subjected to secondary scavenging to obtain secondary scavenging concentrate and secondary scavenging tailings. The secondary scavenging tailings are flotation tailings.

[0058] (5) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough concentrate obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out a first cleaning operation to obtain a first cleaning concentrate and a first cleaning tailings; based on each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, add 500g inhibitor, 60g collector and 70g defoaming agent to the rough concentrate slurry of the first cleaning operation.

[0059] (6) The primary concentrate obtained in step (5) is subjected to secondary refining to obtain zinc concentrate I and secondary refining tailings;

[0060] (7) The primary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (3), the secondary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (4), the primary cleaning tailings obtained in step (5), and the secondary cleaning tailings obtained in step (6) are combined to form a mixed middlings. Collectors and defoaming agents are added to the mixed middlings in sequence, and fine scavenging is carried out to obtain zinc concentrate II and fine scavenging tailings. The fine scavenging tailings are returned and incorporated into the secondary scavenging operation. 90g of collector and 80g of defoaming agent are added to the mixed middlings slurry of the fine scavenging operation per ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore.

[0061] (8) The zinc concentrate I obtained in step (6) and the zinc concentrate II obtained in step (7) are combined to obtain the zinc concentrate product;

[0062] In this embodiment, the zinc flotation recovery rate was 89.3%.

[0063] The specific embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Within the scope of knowledge possessed by those skilled in the art, various changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore, characterized in that, The specific steps are as follows: (1) Crush and grind the zinc oxide ore to achieve a zinc oxide mineral monomer release of more than 90%, and add water to adjust the slurry to a slurry mass percentage concentration of 25-35%; (2) Sodium sulfide, inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent are added to the slurry obtained in step (1) in sequence, and roughing operation is carried out to obtain roughing concentrate and roughing tailings; (3) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough tailings obtained in step (2) in sequence, and perform a scavenging operation to obtain a scavenging concentrate and a scavenging tailings. (4) The tailings obtained from the primary scavenging in step (3) are subjected to secondary scavenging to obtain secondary scavenging concentrate and secondary scavenging tailings; (5) Add inhibitor, collector and defoaming agent to the rough concentrate obtained in step (2) in sequence, and carry out a cleaning operation to obtain a first-clean concentrate and a first-clean tailings; (6) The primary concentrate obtained in step (5) is subjected to a secondary refining operation to obtain zinc concentrate I and secondary refining tailings; (7) The primary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (3), the secondary scavenging concentrate obtained in step (4), the primary cleaning tailings obtained in step (5), and the secondary cleaning tailings obtained in step (6) are combined to form a mixed middlings. Collectors and defoaming agents are added to the mixed middlings in sequence, and fine scavenging is carried out to obtain zinc concentrate II and fine scavenging tailings. The fine scavenging tailings are returned and incorporated into the secondary scavenging operation. (8) The zinc concentrate I obtained in step (6) and the zinc concentrate II obtained in step (7) are combined to obtain the zinc concentrate product. The secondary scavenging tailings obtained in step (4) are flotation tailings. The inhibitor is a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium hexametaphosphate, the collector is a mixture of laurylamine and sodium cocoyl sulfate, and the foam control agent is a mixture of lauryl alcohol, polyether, and sorbitan monostearate. Based on the mass fraction of the inhibitor (100%), sodium carbonate accounts for 65-75% and sodium hexametaphosphate accounts for 25-35%; based on the mass fraction of the collector (100%), lauryl amine accounts for 55-65% and sodium cocoyl sulfate accounts for 35-45%; based on the mass fraction of the foam control agent (100%), lauryl alcohol accounts for 40-50%, polyether accounts for 35-45%, and sorbitan monostearate accounts for 10-20%.

2. The controlled flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore according to claim 1, characterized in that: Step (1) The zinc content in the fine-grained zinc oxide ore is 5.2-9.6% by mass.

3. The controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore according to claim 1, characterized in that: For each ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 8-14 kg of sodium sulfide, 2000-3000 g of inhibitor, 340-460 g of collector and 160-240 g of foam control agent are added to the slurry in step (2) roughing operation.

4. The controlled flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore according to claim 1, characterized in that: For every ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 400-600g of inhibitor, 80-120g of collector and 40-60g of foam control agent are added to the roughing tailings slurry of the first scavenging operation in step (3).

5. The controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore according to claim 1, characterized in that: For every ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 300-500g of inhibitor, 40-60g of collector and 50-70g of defoaming agent are added to the rough concentrate slurry of the first fine-grained operation in step (5).

6. The controlled-bubble flotation method for fine-grained zinc oxide ore according to claim 1, characterized in that: For every ton of fine-grained zinc oxide ore, 70-90g of collector and 60-80g of foam control agent are added to the mixed middlings slurry in step (7) fine scavenging operation.

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