Cassiterite flotation process
December.18,2024
There are more than ten kinds of tin-containing minerals. At present, the tin used in industry mainly comes from cassiterite. Due to the high density of cassiterite (6.4-7.1g/cm3), the main beneficiation method of cassiterite is gravity separation.
However, due to the brittleness of cassiterite, it is easy to become muddy in nature and during crushing, grinding and separation. Therefore, it is of great significance to use flotation to recover fine-grained cassiterite from gravity separation fine mud and tailings.
Cassiterite flotation method
When cassiterite is floated, water glass is usually added to inhibit the associated silicate minerals, sodium hexapolyphosphate and carboxymethyl cellulose are used to inhibit calcium and magnesium minerals, and oxalic acid is added to inhibit wolframite. The raw material for flotation is generally gravity separation tailings less than 0.04mm, and the mud less than 0.01mm is removed first.
If the ore to be floated is vein tin ore, it is often accompanied by sulfide minerals of metals such as iron, arsenic, antimony, lead, copper, and zinc. At this time, the sulfide minerals should be floated out with an activator of the sulfide minerals first, and then the cassiterite should be floated to prevent the sulfide from contaminating the cassiterite concentrate.
