Jie Zhang, Xu-Gang Zhang, Xiang-Xiang Wei, Shao-Yi Cheng, Xiu-Qin Hu, Yong-Chun Luo* Peng-Fei Xu*
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2022.107464
In the flotation separation of copper-lead–zinc complex polymetallic sulphide ores, the separation of chalcopyrite from galena is difficult because both of them have good floatability. Therefore, the development of a green, eco-friendly and selective galena depressant is highly required. In this work, sodium polyaspartate (PASP) was used as a galena depressant in the separation of chalcopyrite from galena. Single mineral flotation experiments showed that PASP could selectively depress galena. With 10 mg/L PASP addition at pH = 10, the recovery of chalcopyrite remained 91.9%, but the recovery of galena decreased to 1.1%. The selective depression mechanism of PASP was studied by collector adsorption measurements, FT-IR and XPS analysis.