Common Spodumene Ore Beneficiation Technologies and Flotation Agents

01Commonly used spodumene ore processing technology

The spodumene dressing processes commonly used in the concentrator include: flotation separation method, magnetic separation method, heavy medium method and combined beneficiation process.

Flotation separation method: it is a commonly used spodumene dressing process, with industrial value of spodumene dressing will generally use flotation method, this method is widely used at home and abroad. The key factors affecting the flotation of spodumene are the agitating strength, temperature and the ratio of adjusting agent.

Magnetic separation method: iron spodumene exists in spodumene, which has weak magnetic properties, so these minerals can be removed by magnetic separation. At the same time, it can also remove other iron-containing minerals and comprehensively recover other valuable metals to improve the quality of concentrate. Magnetic separation can be used as an auxiliary measure to improve the quality of spodumene concentrate. Magnetic separation alone has some limitations, often combined with flotation and reseparation, and the recovery rate of spodumene concentrate can be further improved.

(Magnetic separator)

Heavy medium method: its principle is to separate the density difference between spodumene minerals and other gangue minerals, and the heavy medium method is mainly used to treat the spodumene ore with coarse grain size. This process also has the advantages of low investment, low cost, high concentrate taste and recovery rate, and easy subsequent lithium extraction.

Hand selection method: this is a method based on the difference of surface properties of spodumene and gangue. This process is mainly used in the sorting of raw ore, mainly used for pre-selection operations. The purpose is to separate the ore from gangue minerals and improve the grade of ore selection.

(Spodumene ore beneficiation site)

Combined processing method: with the exploitation of lithium resources, lean and miscellaneous spodumene resources gradually, using a single processing method is difficult to meet the requirements of the concentrate, so it is necessary to apply combined processing process, such as flotation-gravity separation-magnetic combined mineral processing process, can improve the recovery of spoduite concentrate, and the utilization rate of resources.

The above are several mineral processing methods of spodumene, and different ores use different methods. For different spodumene ores, the physical and chemical properties should be analyzed first, and then the appropriate collector and ore dressing process should be selected. The following will introduce the flotation agent of spodumene for you.

(Flotation agents)

02Common spodumene flotation agents

Flotation is an important treatment method for spodumene, in which the use of agents has an important influence on the effect of flotation separation. The commonly used spodumene flotation agent are collector and adjustment agent.

Spodumene flotation collectors mainly include cationic collectors (such as sodium oleate, oxidized paraffin soap, tarr oil, etc.) and anionic collectors (amine traps). In the production practice, combined traps are often used to improve the harvesting effect. Spodumene flotation adjustment agent mainly has metal cation adjustment agent, cascade adjustment agent and organic adjustment agent. Metal cations are often used with traps to activate or inhibit them.

(spodumene flotation)

The above contents are the common beneficiation process and flotation agent of spodumene. The specific beneficiation process and flotation agent should realize the effective separation of spodumenite and gangue minerals according to the characteristics of spodumenite ore. Therefore, Xinhai Mining suggest to carry out beneficiation test, customize the spodumente beneficiation scheme according to the beneficiation test and production requirements, to improve the quality and resource utilization of spodumente.