Impact of pre-desliming on flotation of low-grade zinc oxide ore from Lanping

Zinc oxide ore from Lanping contained large amount of fine slime which badly deteriorated flotation performance, and it complexly intergrowed with plenty of alkaline gangues with calcium and magnesium. In order to investigate the impact of pre-desliming on flotation, experiments of direct flotation and pre-desliming flotation were carried out in the work. Finally, a zinc recovery of 88.73% with a Zn grade of 13.93% was obtained in direct flotation test, and a higher zinc recovery of 95.25% with a Zn grade of 13.56% was achieved by pre-desliming flotation. Pre-desliming flotation test was superior to direct flotation test, because of an increase of nearly 7% in zinc recovery under the condition of similar Zn grade. At the same time, dosage of sulfurization agent used in pre-desliming flotation was lower by 46.67% than that in direct flotation, which obviously improved the availability of sulfurization agent. So both product index and economic benefit were enhanced after pre-desliming.