The Balzhe rare earth mine, renowned for its rich reservoirs of niobium, zirconium, and rare earth elements, poses a unique challenge due to its diverse and interbedded mineral composition. Despite the abundance of these elements, their valuable grade remains notably low, falling short of economic thresholds. To this end, pre-concentration of valuable minerals to discard gangue minerals before flotation would be an economical option. In response, this study delves into the feasibility of gravity-induced pre-concentration, aiming to segregate valuable minerals from gangue for subsequent flotation processes. Conducting float-and-sink tests on varied particle sizes (-2+0.5 mm, -0.5+0.074 mm, and -0.074+0.02 mm) within heavy liquids of specific gravities (ranging from 2.55 to 2.85), the study reveals the effectiveness of gravity separation. Notably, particles sized -2+0.5 mm and -0.074+0.02 mm demonstrated superior separation performance over the -0.5+0.074 mm fraction. Comparative analysis of diverse gravity separation equipment unveiled compelling results. The dense medium cyclone separator showcased impressive recovery rates and high-grade concentrates of Nb2O5, ZrO2, and total rare earth oxides (TREO) at 0.34%, 8.20%, and 0.41%, respectively, surpassing the sand table's performance for -2+0.5 mm particles. Conversely, for -0.5+0.074 mm particles, the shaking table exhibited optimal separation efficiency, yielding grades of Nb2O5, ZrO2, and TREO at 0.37%, 4.08%, and 0.44%, with substantial recovery values. Ultimately, the Knelson centrifugal separator proved most effective for -0.074+0.02 mm particles, yielding notable grades and recoveries of Nb2O5, ZrO2, and TREO. This study underscores the promising potential of gravity-induced pre-concentration techniques for enhancing the recovery of valuable elements from the complex Balzhe rare earth ore, offering critical insights into optimizing mineral extraction processes.
{"title":"Gravity-based pre-concentration strategies for complex rare earth ore containing niobium and zirconium","authors":"Mingliang Zhou, Lixia Li, Feifei Liu, Zhichao Liu, Naci Emre Altun, Zhi-tao Yuan, Jiongtian Liu","doi":"10.37190/ppmp/183609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37190/ppmp/183609","url":null,"abstract":"The Balzhe rare earth mine, renowned for its rich reservoirs of niobium, zirconium, and rare earth elements, poses a unique challenge due to its diverse and interbedded mineral composition. Despite the abundance of these elements, their valuable grade remains notably low, falling short of economic thresholds. To this end, pre-concentration of valuable minerals to discard gangue minerals before flotation would be an economical option. In response, this study delves into the feasibility of gravity-induced pre-concentration, aiming to segregate valuable minerals from gangue for subsequent flotation processes. Conducting float-and-sink tests on varied particle sizes (-2+0.5 mm, -0.5+0.074 mm, and -0.074+0.02 mm) within heavy liquids of specific gravities (ranging from 2.55 to 2.85), the study reveals the effectiveness of gravity separation. Notably, particles sized -2+0.5 mm and -0.074+0.02 mm demonstrated superior separation performance over the -0.5+0.074 mm fraction. Comparative analysis of diverse gravity separation equipment unveiled compelling results. The dense medium cyclone separator showcased impressive recovery rates and high-grade concentrates of Nb2O5, ZrO2, and total rare earth oxides (TREO) at 0.34%, 8.20%, and 0.41%, respectively, surpassing the sand table's performance for -2+0.5 mm particles. Conversely, for -0.5+0.074 mm particles, the shaking table exhibited optimal separation efficiency, yielding grades of Nb2O5, ZrO2, and TREO at 0.37%, 4.08%, and 0.44%, with substantial recovery values. Ultimately, the Knelson centrifugal separator proved most effective for -0.074+0.02 mm particles, yielding notable grades and recoveries of Nb2O5, ZrO2, and TREO. This study underscores the promising potential of gravity-induced pre-concentration techniques for enhancing the recovery of valuable elements from the complex Balzhe rare earth ore, offering critical insights into optimizing mineral extraction processes.","PeriodicalId":508651,"journal":{"name":"Physicochemical Problems of Mineral Processing","volume":"226 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139809584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Froth flotation, as one of the most widely used separation approaches in mineral processing, is commonly used to recover valuable components from minerals. However, maintaining high flotation efficiencies is a serious challenge for conventional froth flotation in the face of decreasing particle size of the minerals to be sorted. To date, there have been plenty of reports on the software of nano-bubbles (NBS) in flotation, and the experimental consequences show that nano-bubbles' introduction has given rise to improvement's different grades in the recovery of varieties of minerals, which highlights the great potential of nano-bubbles for mineral flotation. Nanobubbles have smaller bubble radii and unusually high stability compared to conventional flotation bubbles, and their related behavior in flotation has been a hot research topic. This paper reviews some of the methods of preparing nanobubbles, equipment techniques for characterizing nanobubbles, factors affecting their stability, and some of the popular doctrines. In particular, the reinforcing mechanism of nanobubbles in the particle flotation process is discussed, first, the nanobubbles improve the electrostatic attractiveness with the particles by achieving the charge inversion while the nanobubbles that was adsorbed on the particles' surface will cover a share of the charge, which decreases the electrostatic repulsive force between the particles; and second, the nanobubbles can act as a bridge between the surfaces of the two particles, which advances the agglomeration between the particles. This review aims to be able to further advance the research related to the industrialization of nanobubbles.
{"title":"Current status of research on nanobubbles in particle flotation","authors":"Jian Chen, Jun Chen, Yali Cheng","doi":"10.37190/ppmp/183613","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37190/ppmp/183613","url":null,"abstract":"Froth flotation, as one of the most widely used separation approaches in mineral processing, is commonly used to recover valuable components from minerals. However, maintaining high flotation efficiencies is a serious challenge for conventional froth flotation in the face of decreasing particle size of the minerals to be sorted. To date, there have been plenty of reports on the software of nano-bubbles (NBS) in flotation, and the experimental consequences show that nano-bubbles' introduction has given rise to improvement's different grades in the recovery of varieties of minerals, which highlights the great potential of nano-bubbles for mineral flotation. Nanobubbles have smaller bubble radii and unusually high stability compared to conventional flotation bubbles, and their related behavior in flotation has been a hot research topic. This paper reviews some of the methods of preparing nanobubbles, equipment techniques for characterizing nanobubbles, factors affecting their stability, and some of the popular doctrines. In particular, the reinforcing mechanism of nanobubbles in the particle flotation process is discussed, first, the nanobubbles improve the electrostatic attractiveness with the particles by achieving the charge inversion while the nanobubbles that was adsorbed on the particles' surface will cover a share of the charge, which decreases the electrostatic repulsive force between the particles; and second, the nanobubbles can act as a bridge between the surfaces of the two particles, which advances the agglomeration between the particles. This review aims to be able to further advance the research related to the industrialization of nanobubbles.","PeriodicalId":508651,"journal":{"name":"Physicochemical Problems of Mineral Processing","volume":"57 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139870719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}