A new collector used for flotation of oxide minerals

A surfactant containing a mixed aliphatic structure, with a hydrocarbon chain and a diamine group, has proven to be collector for the flotation of quartz, calamine and calcite. And research about its collecting capability was carried out in laboratory. The test results show that the flotation recovery ascends sharply with increasing the concentration of collector. When the concentration of collector reaches 1.83 x 10(-4) mol/L, the flotation recoveries of quartz, calamine and calcite get their maximum of 97.64%, 91.04% and 95.99%, respectively. The flotation recoveries of quartz, calamine and calcite rise sharply with the rise of pH. And in a wide range of pH, their flotation recoveries all exceed 90%. And in the whole flotation experiment, the flotation recovery of hematite rises with the increase of collector concentration and pH, while the maximal recovery is not more than 55%. Compared with dodecylamine, the N-dodecylethylenediamine has strong capability to quartz and calamine, while the flotation recoveries of calcite are closely. Hydrogen binding adsorption and electrostatic adsorption occur between the collector and the surface of quartz.