Lead sulphide minerals

There is lack of consensus in the published electrochemical studies of flotation of galena and the nature of the important hydrophobic species responsible for 

In the case hydrophobic entity is assumed to be lead xanthate, lead xanthate would be formed by the reaction of the form (1-4) including  

According to the date in literature (Du Tietz, 1975 Garrels and Christ, 1965 Vanghan and Craig, 1978)  

Similarly, the change of standard free energy of reaction (4-12b) is For ethyl xanthate 

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Lead The production of lead from lead sulphide minerals, principally galena, PbS, is considerably more complicated than the production of zinc because tire roasting of the sulphide to prepare the oxide for reduction produces PbO which is a relatively volatile oxide, and therefore the temperature of roasting is limited. The products of roasting also contain unoxidized galena as well as die oxide, some lead basic sulphate, and impurities such as zinc, iron, arsenic and antimony. 

Abstract In the beginning, the mixed potential model, which is generally used to explain the adsorption of collectors on the sulphide minerals, is illustrated. And the collector flotation of several kinds of minerals such as copper sulphide minerals, lead sulphide minerals, zinc sulphide minerals and iron sulphide minerals is discussed in the aspect of pulp potential and the nature of hydrophobic entity is concluded from the dependence of flotation on pulp potential. In the following section, the electrochemical phase diagrams for butyl xanthate/water system and chalcocite/oxygen/xanthate system are all demonstrated from which some useful information about the hydrophobic species are obtained. And some instrumental methods including UV analysis, FTIR analysis and XPS analysis can also be used to investigated sulphide mineral-thio-collector sytem. And some examples about that are listed in the last part of this chapter. 

In general, the calceous-dolomitic rocks from the Cambrian age are affected by their upper beds, by sulphide mineralization of lead, zinc and iron contemporaneous with sedimentation. The oxide lead and zinc minerals are disseminated through dolomitic limestone. As a consequence of the action of the descending process, these formations may assume different types of mineralization. According to the intensity of the oxidation process, which is associated with the different characteristics of the country rock, this country rock may be (a) principally calceous, (b) calceous with dolomitized zones and (c) primarily dolomitized. 

Flotation of the lead oxide minerals is a difficult problem not least because there are no known direct acting collectors. Normally, during oxide lead flotation, a sulphidization method is used with xanthate as a collector. In the majority of cases, the ore is pretreated using a desliming process, especially if the ore contains clay and Fe-hydroxides. Another method includes the preconcentration using heavy liquid. 

Of all the lead oxide minerals, cerussite and anglesite [1,2] have been studied the most. The flotation properties of cerussite and anglesite are different in such a way as the anglesite is less amenable to sulphidization than cerussite. The sulphidization process for both minerals is a delicate process and is sensitive to (a) level of additions of sulphidizer, (b) the number of sulphidization stages and (c) conditioning time with sulphidizer. 

In plant practice, lead oxide minerals are recovered using a sulphidization method with xanthate as the primary collector and mercaptans as the secondary collector. 

Arsenic occurs primarily in sulphide minerals associated with copper ores, and to a lesser extent with zinc, lead and gold ores. Arsenic is produced as a by-product of the smelting of these metals. Primary arsenic production has now ceased in the USA and Europe, and most arsenic is now imported from China and Mexico. The volatility of arsenic represents a significant concern, and there is at present no known natural mechanism by which arsenic is immobilized in the environment. Anthropogenic activities account for an input of some 19000 tonnes into the atmosphere, compared with 12000 tonnes from natural processes, such as volcanism and forest fires (Ayres and Ayres, 1996). 

In the 2nd period ranging from the 1930s to the 1950s, basic research on flotation was conducted widely in order to understand the principles of the flotation process. Taggart and co-workers (1930, 1945) proposed a chemical reaction hypothesis, based on which the flotation of sulphide minerals was explained by the solubility product of the metal-collector salts involved. It was plausible at that time that the floatability of copper, lead, and zinc sulphide minerals using xanthate as a collector decreased in the order of increase of the solubility product of their metal xanthate (Karkovsky, 1957). Sutherland and Wark (1955) paid attention to the fact that this model was not always consistent with the established values of the solubility products of the species involved. They believed that the interaction of thio-collectors with sulphides should be considered as adsorption and proposed a mechanism of competitive adsorption between xanthate and hydroxide ions, which explained the Barsky empirical relationship between the upper pH limit of flotation and collector concentration. Gaudin (1957) concurred with Wark s explanation of this phenomenon. Du Rietz... 

The presence of oxygen enhances the formation of the surface coating and depresses the flotation of pyrrhotite. It appears, therefore, that although the floatability of individual mineral may be controlled by pulp potential, the presence of several sulphide minerals, particularly when they are ground with steel media, leads to galvanic interaction among them and the alteration of certain mineral surfaces may be accelerated. Then the pulp potential dependence of their floatability may not follow those of individual mineral. 

Besides, the polarization resistance of sphalerite electrode is the highest among lead-zinc-iron sulphide minerals, illustrating its poor conductivity of ZnS. 

Lead-Zinc-Iron-Sulphide Minerals and Ores... 

Buckley, A. N., 1994. A survey of the application of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to flotation research. Colloids Surf, 93 159 - 172 Buckley, A. N. and Woods, R., 1995. Identifying chemisorption in the interaction of thiol collectors with sulphide minerals by XPS adsorption of xanthate on silver and silver sulphide. Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 104,2 - 3 Buckley, A. N. and Woods, R., 1996. Relaxation of the lead-deficient sulphide surface layer on oxidized galena. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 26(9) 899 - 907 Buckley, A. N. and Woods, R., 1997. Chemisorption—the thermodynamically favored process in the interaction of thiol collectors with sulphide minerals. Inert. J. Miner. Process, 51 15-26... 

Rand, D. A., 1975. Oxygen reduction on sulphide minerals, part III comparisson of activity of various copper, iron, lead, nickle mineral electrodes. Electrochemistry and Interfacial Electrochemistry, 60 265 - 275... 

As was previously mentioned, trace elements that sublime at temperatures below those attained during coal combustion (e.g., As, Se, Hg, Zn), and are associated with thermally unstable solid phases (in particular organic matter and sulphide minerals), are subject to vaporization into furnace gases. Once these gases, and fly ash particles entrained in the gases, are vented from the combustion furnace they quickly cool, leading to the condensation of volatilized elements onto the... 

Lead sulphide (galena - PbS) is another likely candidate for hydrometallurgical processing particularly in the United States where, apart from the problems of the sulphur dioxide emissions, the lead toxicity problem is making it very difficult for the lead smelters to operate their conventional pyrometallurgical process and comply with EPA and OSHA standards. The total amount of lead mined in the United States is about 600,000 tons per year which, if fully converted, would yield about 100,000 tons per year of by-product sulphur. The Bureau of Mines in Reno, Nevada, have an active pilot plant study to produce lead via a hydrometal-lurigal process (2). In this process the common lead mineral galena is dissolved in an acid brine solution of ferric chloride. 

You may, for example, see it written that aluminium is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth s crust . This, of course, does not mean that macroscopic particles of the light, silvery metallic substance from which jumbo jets and saucepans are largely fabricated are to be found in nature. Element has become a collective term, and encompasses all the atoms having a particular atomic number, regardless of their state of chemical combination. We must therefore be careful to refer to an elemental substance if that is what we mean. Thus when we say that lead occurs in sulphide minerals , we are referring to an element the statement that lead reacts only slowly with dilute hydrochloric acid obviously... 

Mineral physics studies. 10. Electrical properties of mineral aggregates. I. Natural and artificial aggregates of crystallized lead sulphide. Ibid., 3268, pp. 21-50. 

Quite frequently the natural surface of a mineral requires preliminary chemical treatment before it will form the surface film required for collection One of the commonest instances of this is with sphalerite (zinc sulphide), which does not float properly when treated with xanthates. If, however, it is given a preliminary treatment with dilute copper sulphate solution, a very small amount of copper sulphide is deposited on the surface and the ore becomes floatable, the surface being now capable of reaction with xanthates. Such treatment is usually termed activation in general, an activating solution for a sulphide mineral should contain a metallic ion whose sulphide is less soluble than that contained in the mineral for zinc sulphides, silver, copper, mercury, cadmium, and lead salts are all effective activators. 

Combined with arsenic, nickel occurs in the mineral niccolite, nickeline, ox copper nickel, NiAs. It is rarely crystalline, but when it is the form is hexagonal hardness 5-5 density 7-5. Its coppery rcdl hue is characteristic, only two other minerals, namely, copper arsenide and breihauptite or nickel antimonide, NiSb, bearing any resemblance to it. This latter mineral occurs at Andreasberg, in the Harz, is usually massive, and often associated with a considerable amount of lead sulphide. Crystals are rare hexagonal. 

It is self-evident that the oxidation of sulphide minerals entails the consumption of oxygen. The initial source is molecular oxygen from the atmosphere but this must pass into solution in groundwater or soil solutions before any reaction with sulphides is possible. Interstitial air in soils, overburden or porous rocks forms an intermediate reservoir of oxygen between buried sulphides and the free atmosphere. The oxidation may be entirely chemical or may be enhanced by the microbial action of bacteria such as Thiohacillus thiooxidans. The oxidation of sulphides leads to the production of sulphuric acid, which will be neutralised by any available carbonates with the release of gaseous carbon dioxide into the subsurface surroundings and ultimately into the atmosphere. 

Torma, A.E. and Subramanian, K.N., 1974. Selective bacterial leaching of a lead sulphide concentrate. Int. J. Miner. Process., 1 125—134. 

Lead sulphide is converted to insoluble lead sulphate. This together with silver, gold and insoluble gangue minerals (mostly silicates) will form a leach residue. The contamination of sulphate and silicate is likely to yield a residue of less than 30% Pb. Unless rich in silver, it is rarely attractive to treat at or transport from a mine location. 

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