Application of waste gypsum as novel selective depressant in the flotation separation of apatite from dolomite

The accumulation of gypsum slag not only causes resource wastage, but also poses serious environmental hazards, therefore, utilizing the resources of the main components in gypsum slag is an imperative task. In this study, gypsum was used as an inorganic depressant for the flotation separation of apatite from dolomite through the selective adsorption of gypsum on the surface of dolomite. Micro-flotation experiments showed that sodium oleate exhibited a good ability to collect apatite and dolomite, but poor ability to collect gypsum. At pH 9.5, when 3.75 g/L gypsum was added to the slurry, the recovery of dolomite decreased from 76.77 % to 18.34 %, whereas that of apatite was 86.45 %. Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to elucidate the adsorption characteristics of gypsum on the apatite and dolomite surfaces. The results showed that gypsum was selectively adsorbed on the raised particles on the dolomite surface and combined with the active sites of Ca and Mg metal ions. However, the adsorption of gypsum on the surface of apatite was weak and had little effect on the flotation performance. Density functional theory calculations showed that the O in gypsum reacted easily with Ca and Mg metal ions on the mineral surface. The adsorption energies of gypsum at the Ca and Mg sites on the dolomite surface were -81.97 and -86.18 kJ/mol, respectively, whereas the adsorption energy on the apatite surface was only -34.20 kJ/mol. Gypsum is the main component of gypsum slag, and this study provides a potential recycling method for gypsum slag resources.