Behavior of the collectorless flotation of pyrargyrite
Abstract
Pyrargyrite Ag3SbS3 is a sulfosal-type mineral rich in silver present in the deposits of Cu, Pb and Zn sulfides, which is not recovered individually and floats together with the sulfides, the silver of this mineral is eliminated in the slag during fusion. For this reason, this work studies the collectorless flotation of pyrargyrite to provide information for the selective separation of this mineral. The results found show that the flotation of pyrargyrite can be carried out without a collector only using 60 mg / L frother agent. The pH plays an important role and greater flotation efficiency is obtained at pH 6 and 10 with around 66% w/w separation. The acid values 2, 2.54 and 4.97 depress the flotation of the mineral. The surface depression is attributed to the strong intensity of the absorption bands, of the sulfate ion and hydroxyl OH- giving a hydrophilic character to the surface. While the surface activation is attributed to the oxidation of the metallic components forming bonds Sb-O and Ag-O species determined by infrared.
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References
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