Study on pure mineral floatation tests of low-grade phosphate ore in zhijin, guizhou province, china

This paper mainly deals with the issue difficult separation of dolomite and apatite, resulting in low P2O5 and high MgO in the concentrated products. Pure mineral Floatation method is adopted to decrease MgO but increase P2O5 in the products, so as to provide base for the small-scale concentration process. A study on pure mineral Floatation tests to enrich phosphorus and lower magnesium was carried out by applying a hanging cell Floatation machine. Comparisons were made using sulfuric acid or LZ and sulfuric acid as the inhibitor, and WH-BC or WH-B or NS as the collector, the results showed that both LZ and sulfuric acid at a certain ratio can achieve a better inhibitory effect, while NS showed a better collecting result on dolomite. Thus it is concluded that selective separation of apatite from dolomite can be achieved effectively using NS as the collector and LZ as the inhibitor. The findings is to provide some insights or references for the future small scaled research on high enrichment and recovery of phosphorus from low grade rare-earth-bearing phosphate ores.