Interactions of clay minerals and their effects on copper-gold flotation

Abstract

The continuous depletion of mineral resources has resulted in the increased processing of low grade complex ores that in some cases contain clay minerals. These gangue minerals are often associated with ores containing copper and gold and can cause problems in mineral flotation. Some of the observations from industry when high clay ores are processed include the high flotation pulp viscosity, over-stable froth or absent froth, and lower grade and recovery. Clay minerals are small flat particles that occur in colloidal size ranges with charges on their surfaces that may change with pH. These characteristics allow them to interact with water, reagents and other gangue minerals present in flotation pulp. Given these properties and interactions it is Publications during candidature Peer reviewed journals publications relevant to the thesis:

Managing clay minerals in froth flotation—A critical review

“…Clay minerals are all fundamentally built of tetrahedral (T) sheets and octahedral (O) sheets that are bonded in certain proportions with various forces and atoms to form clay macrostructure (Brigatti et al 2013). Based on the layer structures and bonding forces of layers, the most commonly occurring clay minerals in ore deposits can be classified into three groups: kaolin, smectite, and illite (Cruz 2016;Wang 2016;Zhang 2016). The structure representative of a mineral in each group is shown in Figure 1.…”