The importance of mechanical scrubbing in magnetite-concentrate reverse-flotation

Getting magnetite concentrate with extremely high Fe grade using reverse flotation method has become increasingly important due to the enhanced requirement of iron making industry. The coagulation in magnetite-concentrate flotation system may impose negative effect on flotation performance. This paper combined the DLVO calculation and microscope observation to study the coagulation behavior in the system. The result shows that the coagulation between fine magnetite and coarse silica particle is very likely to occur with energy barrier 1.5 × 10−18 J at pH 10.0, which is much smaller than 1.6 × 10−17 J and 3.3 × 10−17 J for fine magnetite and fine magnetite-coarse magnetite particles. The coating of fine magnetite particle on silica surface was observed under microscope. Mechanical scrubbing increases the concentrate Fe grade and recovery by 1.5% and 8.5% respectively. Magnetite concentrate of 67.9% Fe grade and 71.5% Fe recovery was finally obtained.