Beneficiation of fluorite by flotation in a new chemical scheme

In this work, the froth flotation of fluorite from an ore in China has been studied using an enhanced sodium naphthenate as collector and a salted copper sulfate as the depressant of phosphate minerals. The experimental results show that the enhanced sodium naphthenate is an effective collector in fluorite flotation at a low slurry temperature. The substitution of the enhanced sodium naphthenate for a commonly used fatty acid as collector in fluorite flotation not only greatly lowered slurry temperature in the system, but also increased the separation efficiency and reduced the reagent cost, resulting in significant economic benefits for fluorite flotation plants in northern areas. Also, it was found that the elimination of phosphate minerals from the fluorite concentrate could be successfully achieved using the salted copper sulfate as a depressant.