Farklı Bastırıcıların Galen Flotasyonuna Etkisi

Effect of Different Depressants on Galena Flotation

Ü. Yenial, A. Gül
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Mines, Mineral Processing Engineering, 34469
Maslak/Istanbul, Turkey
Ü. Yılmaz
ETİ Bakır Küre Plant, 37900 Küre/Kastamonu, Turkey

ÖZET: Galen, kalkopirit, sfalerit ve pirit gibi sülfürlü minerallerin birbirlerinden seçimli
olarak ayrılmasında çeşitli kollektörler, bastırıcılar ve düzenleyiciler kullanılmaktadır. Bu
çalışmanın amacı farklı bastıcıların galen flotasyonuna etkisini incelemektir. Bu amaçla Na2S,
H2O2 ve S7260’ın bastırıcı etkileri araştırılmıştır. Saf galen numunesiyle Denver flotasyon
hücresinde 3418A kollektörü ve MIBC köpürtücüsü ile flotasyon yapılmıştır. Bastırıcıların
etkileri farklı miktarlarda ve çeşitli pH’larda incelenmiştir. Herhangi bir bastırıcı
kullanmaksızın galenin flotasyon verimi pH 7’de en iyi değere ulaşmış, pH 11’de düşmüştür.
Deneylerin sonucunda bastırıcıların etkisinin pH’ya bağlı olduğu görülmüştür ve tüm
bastırıcıların etkisi pH 11’de en yüksek değere ulaşmıştır. S7260 içlerinde en etkili bastırıcı
olarak bulunmuştur.

ABSTRACT Selective separation of sulphide minerals such as galena, chalcopyrite,

sphalerite, pyrite etc., can be achieved with various collectors, depressants and modifiers. The
aim of this study is to investigate different depressants for depression of galena. On this basis,
the effect of Na2S, H2O2 and S7260 were investigated on galena flotation. Pure galena was
used as ore sample and experiments were conducted with Denver flotation cell using 3418A
as a collector and MIBC as a frother. The effects of depressant amount and different pH were
examined. Flotation recovery of galena approached the highest value at pH 7 and decreased at
pH 11 without any depressant. As a result of experiments it is found that depressing effect of
these depressants was related to their amount and pH. The depressing effect of all depressants
reached highest value at pH 11. It is found that S7260 was the most effective depressant
among them.

1 INTRODUCTION
Flotation is an important step for separation
of Cu-Pb-Zn minerals from gangue minerals
and pyrite. The treatment processes of
selective separation Cu-Pb-Zn minerals are
generally complex. Effective selective
separation depends on a variety of collectors
and modifiers to adjust surface properties. In
practice, when treating complex sulphide
ores, the use of two or more depressants are
common, especially when a selectivity
problem is present or separation of several
valuable minerals are required (Bulatovic
and Wyslouzil, 1995).
The methods used in the processing of
copper-lead-zinc ore could be classified as
follows (Bulatovic, 2007):
a) Sequential copper, lead, zinc flotation
method
b) Bulk flotation of copper and lead followed
by zinc flotation from the bulk tailings. The
copper–lead separation is performed on the
upgraded bulk concentrate. This is the most
commonly used method in the treatment of
copper, lead-zinc ores
c) Bulk flotation of copper-lead-zinc
minerals followed by a selective flotation of
copper, lead and zinc from the bulk
concentrate
The bulk copper–lead flotation method is
the most common method. In this method,
the copper–lead bulk concentrate is floated,
followed by Cu–Pb separation. Usually, in
the Cu–Pb separation, tailing is the final lead
or copper concentrate depending on the
separation method used (Bulatovic, 2007).
In general, there are two basic copper–lead
separation methods commonly used during
the treatment of copper–lead–zinc ores:
a) In copper depression and lead flotation
generally cyanide treatment is used.
b) In lead depression and copper flotation,
the methods below are preferred:
(i) Use of oxidizing reagents (i.e.
bichromates, hypochlorites, etc.)
(ii) Use of sulfoxy compounds with or
without oxidants, or with starch derivatives
(Gül, 2007; Gül et al., 2008)
(iii) Use of SO2 /starch with or without
heating (i.e. thermal treatment)
Generally in the copper-galena selective
flotation, the copper minerals are floated
while galena is depressed (Houot and
Duhamet, 1992).
In the literature, there are several
inorganic and organic compounds used in
depression of galena. These are sodium
sulfide, sodium chromate, polysaccharides
such as carboxy methyl cellulose, dextrin
and caustic starch. Sodium sulfite and SO2
were used for depression of galena and
sphalerite between 250-2000 g/t amount.
Sodium dichromate was another chemical
which was used for galena depressant in
Cu/Pb separation.
The aim of this study is to investigate
different depressants for selective depression
of galena. On this basis the effect of Na2S,
H2O2 and S7260 were investigated on galena
flotation.
2 MATERIAL AND METHOD
The galena sample used in this study was
supplied from Esan Balya Lead and Zinc
plant in Turkey. The impurities were elected
by handsorting. The chemical composition of
galena was 85.69% Pb, 13.35% S and 0.8%
SiO2. The sample is almost 99% purity. The
collector used in flotation experiments was
3418A (Cytec), and methyl isobuthyl
carbinol (MIBC) from Aldrich was
employed as a frother. 3418A is a sodium-
diisobutyl dithiophosphinate (DTPINa) type
collector. Na2S (Merck), H2O2 (Merck) and
S7260 (Cytec) were used in the experiments
to investigate effect of these depressants on
flotation recovery of galena. S7260 is a
polymeric depressant and contains between
30 to 60% polymer in an aqueous solution
with up to 10% isopropanol and 10% sodium
metabisulphite. H2SO4 and lime were used as
pH regulators. The pure galena sample was
ground dry with agate mortar freshly for
each experiment. According to sieve analysis
the d80 and d50 size of the galena was found
as 0.046 mm and 0.015 mm, respectively.
The experiments were conducted with 50 g
of sample using 1L cell with Denver
machine, the impeller speed was at 1200
rpm. The results were shown as flotation
recovery and calculated through the mass
balance of the floated and remained
products. The experimental conditions were
given in Table 1.
Table 1: Experimental Conditions
Collector: 3418A 100 g/t
Frother: MIBC 300 g/t
Conditioning Time
10 min
with depressant
Conditioning Time
3 min
with collector
Flotation Time 5 min
3 RESULTS
3.1 Effect of pH
A series of experiments were conducted to
investigate effect of pH at experimental
conditions given in Table 1. The results were
given in Figure 1 and Table 2. It was found
that galena could float in every pH with high
recovery however the highest recovery was
obtained between pH 7-9. Above and below
this pH the recoveries slightly decreased and
the lowest recovery was obtained at pH 11.
100
90
Flotation Recovery, %
flotation recovery of galena at pH 11. As a
result, increasing H2O2 amount from 500 g/t
to 10000 g/t decreased the flotation recovery
from 93.6% to 15.1%.
Na2S was used as another depressant in
this study. The amount of Na2S was changed
between 500-10000 g/t at different pH
values. The results were shown in Figure 3.
According to experiments it was found that
increasing Na2S amount decreased the
flotation recovery from 99.4% to 67.4% at
pH 7. Besides, increasing Na2S amount was
more effective than H2O2 on the flotation
recovery above pH 7. The lowest recovery
was obtained as 10% at pH 9 and 11 using
10000 g/t Na2S.
The third depressant used in this study was

S7260. The amount of S7260 was changed

80
between 200-2000 g/t at different pH’s and
the results were depicted in Figure 4. The
most efficient depressant was found to be
70
S7260 even in very low amounts. When
2000 g/t S7260 amount was used the
60 flotation recovery was decreased to 10% at
pH 7. In other pH values, 10% recoveries
50 were obtained even at lower amounts. The
4 6 8 10 12 highest influence of S7260 amount occurred
pH
Figure 1. Effect of pH on galena flotation again at pH 11.

Table 2: Effect of pH on galena flotation 100

pH Recovery, %
5.0 94.34 80
Flotation Recovery, %

6.0 97.66
7.0 99.60 60
8.0 99.60
9.0 99.59 40
10.0 97.54 pH 5
11.0 93.64 20 pH 7
pH 9
pH 11
3.2 Effect of Depressants 0
In order to investigate the effect of 0 2500 5000 7500 10000
Amount g/t
depressants on galena flotation, H2O2 Na2S,
and S7260 were used. The amount of H2O2 Figure 2. Effect of H2O2 amount on galena
was changed between 500-10000 g/t at flotation
different pH values. The results were shown
in Figure 2. It was found that increasing
H2O2 amount did not affect the recovery of
galena at pH 7. However a decline could be
seen at other pH values. It is worth to note
that very low H2O2 amount decreased the
 100 93.6% at pH 11. However in another study
(Barsakçı, 2008) the flotation recovery was
80 found as 66% at pH 11 using pure galena
Flotation Recovery, %

sample at same experimental conditions. The

60
tendency of the flotation recovery was found
similar while the recoveries were not due to
40
different origin of the galena samples. In the
pH 7 literature it has been noted that complete
20
pH 5 flotation of galena can occur from pH 2 to 10
pH 9 (Weiss, 1985). Flotation of galena in acid
pH 11 solutions is explained by increased
0
0 2500 5000 7500 10000 hydrophobicity with oxidation due to
Amount, g/t formations of sulphur on the surface by
Figure 3. Effect of Na2S amount on galena Kocabağ et al. (1990). Passing from acidic to
flotation neutral and alkaline solutions oxidation of
100 galena takes place forming Pb(OH)2 on the
pH 5 surface in addition to S0, which decreases the
pH 7 hydrophobicity due to the formation of
80 pH 9
Flotation Recovery, %

60
40
20
0 obtained at 10000g/t H2O2 amount. The same
0 500
Figure 4. Effect of S7260 amount on
galena flotation
4 DISCUSSION
In this study, the effects of different
depressants were investigated using pure
galena. The purity of galena sample was
99%. The collector used in the experiments
is 3418A, which is an anionic sodium-
diisobutyl dithiophosphinate collector and
mainly adsorbs on galena at every pH. The
collector 3418A adsorbs onto the surface of
galena regardless of its negative charge, thus
suggesting the contribution of
chemisorption mechanism (Pecina-Trevino
et al., 2003).
First of all, the effect of pH was
investigated without the use of any
depressant. It was found that the flotation
recovery of galena was highest between pH
7-9 and decreased above and below these
pHs. The lowest recovery was found as
pH 11
Pb(OH)2 or metal-sulpoxy compounds
(Kocabağ et al., 1990).
In the second stage, the effect of H2O2 was
investigated, in 500-10000 g/t amount range.
It was found that, 500 and 1000 g/t H2O2
addition increased the flotation recovery of
galena at pH 5, above this amount it was
decreased and 73.4% galena recovery was
1000 1500 2000 tendency was observed at pH 9. At pH 7
Amount, g/t
flotation recovery was slightly decreased
even at 10000 g/t H2O2 amount. H2O2 is a
strong oxidant which causes non selective
oxidation of sulphide minerals. It was also
reported that galena flotation decreases and
completely get depressed if the concentration
of H2O2 exceeds 10-3M (Wang, 1992). The
similar findings were observed by Hu et al.,
(2010) who stated that the flotation recovery
of galena decreased at pH 9.5 when H2O2
concentration was above 10-3M but the
chalcopyrite remained floatable and
suggesting these conditions were applicable
to selective separation of chalcopyrite and
a galena.
In the third stage, the effect of Na2S was
investigated in 500-10000 g/t amount range
and different pHs. It was found that
increasing the amount of Na2S had not a
significant depressing effect on galena at pH
5 and 7. However increasing amount of Na2S
depressed the galena flotation and the
recovery of galena was found to be 10% at
pH 9 and 11 with 10000 Na2S. The
concentration of Na2S is very critical, low
dosages of Na2S can be used as an activator
while high dosages can prevent mineral-
reagent reaction so it can be used as a
depressant (Bulatovic, 2007). Lead sulfide is
a very insoluble compound so that additions
of sodium sulfide will result in the formation
of lead sulfide rather than lead-collector if
two chemicals are present at the same time
(Fuerstenau et al., 1985).
In the last stage, S7260 was used as a
depressant between 200 and 2000 g/t
amount. The results at pH 5, 7 and 9 showed
similar tendency and flotation recoveries
were decreased to 9% at 2000 g/t amount.
Like other depressants, the highest
depressing effect was observed at pH 11, the
recovery of galena decreased to 13% using
500 g/t amount of S7260. The increasing
amount decreased the recovery of galena to
7%. S7260 is generally known as an iron
sulphide depressant, which requires low
dosages (Cytec, 2010). S7260 was
previously used by Gül et al., (2013) for the
selective separation of Cu and Pb . Very low
amounts (25 g/t) of S7260 were used for
selective depression of pyrite and Cu
minerals. In addition, Baştürkcü et al., (2012)
used S7260 for pyrite rejection in rougher
Pb-Cu circuit. It is necessary to note that the
amount of S7260 is very critical for Pb
flotation; low amounts depress the other
sulphide minerals and increase selectivity
whereas high amounts may cause Pb
depression as shown in this study.
5 CONCLUSION
According to this study, the highest
recovery of pure galena found at pH 7 and
lowest recovery was obtained at pH 11.
Among used depressants in this study such
as H2O2, Na2S and S7260, S7260 was found
as the most efficient in all pH ranges. H2O2
was found inefficient at pH 5, 7 and 9 and
efficient at pH 11 at high dosages. Na2S was
found to be effective at pH 9-11 at high
dosages. These depressants can be used for
depression of Pb minerals.
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