Intensification of diamond purification from hydrophilic minerals in foam separation process

Abstract

The reason for diamond loss in foam separation process consists in the fact that the diamond crystals fed to the foam separation are coated with hydroxides and carbonates. A combined method to restore the diamond hydrophobicity through thermal and electrochemical destruction of the mineral coat was proposed. This method provides for the conditioning stage in the foam separation process to enable decreasing the amount of the minerals coating diamonds surface from 3 to 10 times. Technological research showed that using products of diaphragm less electrolysis of recirculating water, with the thermal treatment of the foam separation feed enables increasing the recovery of diamonds in the foam separation concentrate from 76.5% to 83.7%.