Niobium flotation

The AQ4 provides excellent pulp dispersion and slime depression during niobium flotation. The niobium grade-recovery relationship using different levels of AQ4 is shown in Figure 22.6. 

Bulatovic, S., Research and Development of Niobium Flotation from Pegmatite Ore, SGS Report of Investigation, 2007. 

Bulatovic, S., Tantalum niobium flotation from complex ores, Report of Investigation, p. 185, 1989. 

The most important tin mineral is cassiterite (Sn02). Theoretically, the tin content of cassiterite is 78%. However, in the majority of cases, cassiterite contains impurities and the tin content may vary from 65% to 78%. The major impurities of cassiterite include tantalum, niobium, titanium and other elements, usually in the form of solid solutions. The impurities in the cassiterite often have a pronounced effect on flotation properties of cassiterite. 

Figure 22.3 Effect of sodium oleate on flotation of niobium from pegmatite ores.

The results obtained indicated that cationic flotation of pyrochlore was not successful. Dispersant AQ4 has a pronounced effect on niobium metallurgical results. Dispersant/ depressant AQ4 is composed of the following individual reagents 60% orthodihydrox-ybenzene (Catacol), 30% low-molecular-weight acrylic acid (Accumer 2400) and 10% hexametapho sphate. 

The niobium circuit flowsheet (Figure 22.7) was modified to include (a) thickening of the deslimed calcite tailing before flotation, and (b) retreatment of the niobium cleaner tailing for extra niobium recovery. 

Pavlor, D.A., Flotation of Niobium from Pegmatitic Ores, Tsvetnie Metally, No. 8, 1976. 

There are approximately 130 different minerals that contain tantalum and niobium, from which about 80 are Ta/Nb only. The other minerals contain tantalum and niobium in the form of impurities. There is very little information available on beneficiation of Ta/Nb-containing ores. In actual practice, there are three basic methods for production of Ta/Nb concentrate (a) physical preconcentration, (b) combination of physical preconcentration and flotation and (c) direct flotation. In most cases, Ta/Nb ores contain significant quantities of zircon and rare earth ores (REO). 

The results showed that amines normally used for pyrochlore flotation did not work for flotation of Ta/Nb. Therefore, collector selection is very dependent on the type of niobium minerals present in the ore. 

The ore used in this example contained a mixture of pyrochlore and columbite as the major niobium minerals. The tantalum is mainly associated with columbite. The major gangue minerals present in this ore were soda and potassium feldspars with small amounts of mica and quartz. Beneficiation of this ore using cationic flotation, normally employed for flotation of niobium, was not applicable for this particular ore, since most of the mica and feldspar floated with the niobium and tantalum. The effect of amine on Ta/Nb flotation is illustrated in Figure 23.9. The selectivity between Ta/Nb and gangue minerals using a cationic collector was very poor. 

The Ta/Nb flotation was accomplished using collector RS702. This collector is composed of amine acetate, phosphoric acid esters and hydroxamate. Collector RS702 is a powerful collector, capable of floating a variety of niobium minerals that are contained in the flotation feed. Metallurgical results obtained from a continuous locked-cycle test are shown in Table 23.14. 

In the past, most of the rutile was produced from heavy mineral sands using physical concentration, involving gravity, magnetic separation and electrostatic concentration. The physical preconcentration method cannot be applied to a fine heavy mineral sand or hard ore. In some cases, heavy mineral sand contains zircon, tantalum, niobium and other heavy minerals, where in most cases a flotation method is used. 

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