Impact of milling condition on the flotation of Vietnamese silicaceous carbonaceous apatite ore

This study aims to endeavor the role of milling environment on the output particle properties and on the batch flotation behavior of a siliceous carbonaceous sedimentary apatite ore. For this purpose, the milling prior to the flotation was performed in three conditions, i.e. dry, wet and wet-conditioned using a rod mill and finding the milling times in order to have the same particle size distribution (PSD). Flotation experiments were carried out in a 4 L agitating mechanical cell at pH10 adjusted by Na2CO3, sodium silicate (400 g/t) and corn starch (200 g/t) as depressants. Atrac 922 (350 g/t) and MIBC (15 g/t) were added as collector and frother, respectively. Concentrates and tailings were mineralogically and chemically characterized by automated mineralogy (Mineral Liberation Analyzer - MLA) and inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP - OES), respectively. It was shown that the flotation feed particle size distributions (PSDs), apatite and dolomite liberation degrees (LDs) and water properties were remained constant for all three milling configurations which allowed to eliminate their effectiveness on floatability responses.
The experimental results showed that the different particle properties (i.e., particle size, mineral liberation), pulp/ froth properties (Ca2+/ Mg2+ ions concentration, pulp rheology, froth structure) under different milling conditions, which in turn influences on the flotation response (grade, recovery, flotation kinetics and selectivity between apatite and carbonate minerals). A feed ore containing about 12.4 % P2O5 and 7.3 % MgO, after rougher flotation, achieved concentrates with a P2O5 content of about 16.7-17 % at the recoveries of 88.6-92.3 %. However, the MgO content of 7.9-8.3 % in the apatite concentrates is higher compared to the feed, where only 24-29 % of dolomite was removed. Hence, the separation between apatite-carbonates is very challenging for fine intergrowth sedimentary siliceous carbonaceous apatite ores, which will need further investigation on optimization of reagent regime, especially, depressants of carbonates minerals.