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Minerals
Special Issues
Industrial Minerals Flotation–Fundamentals and Applications
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Industrial Minerals Flotation–Fundamentals and Applications

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2024 | Viewed by 1964

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xuming Wang

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Guest Editor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, University of Utah, 122 S. Central Campus Drive, #304 Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Interests: metallurgical engineering; industry mineral processing; flotation chemistry; hydrometallurgy; wastewater treatment; surface/interface chemistry; battery recycling
Prof. Dr. Jan D. Miller

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, University of Utah, 122 S. Central Campus Drive, #304 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0114, USA
Interests: X-ray CT 3D characterization; surface chemistry; coal preparation; hydrometallurgy; nanoparticle in battery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industrial minerals are generally considered to be nonmetallic mineral resources. Most industrial minerals, including limestone, clays, sand, gravel, diatomite, kaolin, bentonite, silica, barite, talc, and gypsum, are used in the construction industry and/or as additives, such as kaolinite in the production of paper. The industrial minerals are valued for their physical and chemical properties that make them useful for many industrial applications. In agriculture, industrial minerals such as potash and phosphate are essential fertilizer ingredients. Bauxite is the primary source of aluminum ore and is also used to make ceramics, cement, and abrasives. In the new energy sector, the industrial minerals also play an important supporting role. Graphite and manganese serve as electrodes in many lithium batteries. Spodumene and various types of lithium clays are important sources of lithium for lithium-ion batteries. Rare-earth resources are one of the most critical resources for many industries including renewable energy and defense industries. As with many metallic mineral resources, concentration processes are needed to purify and enrich industrial minerals before further preparation and utilization. Flotation is a crucial process for the separation and concentration of minerals from ores. The special features of the flotation chemistry of industrial minerals distinguish them from the flotation chemistry of sulfide minerals. This Special Issue aims to highlight the latest advances and applications of flotation technology in the recovery of industrial minerals and is seeking original research articles, reviews, and case studies including, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Industrial minerals applications;
  • Fundamental features of the flotation chemistry;
  • Phosphate flotation;
  • Soluble salt flotation;
  • Phyllosilicate mineral surface chemistry;
  • Bauxite flotation;
  • Spodumene flotation;
  • Rare earth flotation;
  • Graphite recovery from retired batteries.

Prof. Dr. Xuming Wang
Prof. Dr. Jan D. Miller
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • industrial minerals
  • phosphate flotation
  • bauxite flotation
  • soluble salt flotation
  • clay mineral surface chemistry
  • spodumene flotation
  • rare earth flotation
  • graphite recovery

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 5557 KiB  
Article
Interaction and Inhibition Mechanism of Sulfuric Acid with Fluorapatite (001) Surface and Dolomite (104) Surface: Flotation Experiments and Molecular Dynamics Simulations
by Aoao Chen, Xuming Wang and Qin Zhang
Minerals 2023, 13(12), 1517; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13121517 - 04 Dec 2023
Viewed by 749
Abstract
The natural wettability of apatite and dolomite and the effect of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and sodium oleate (NaOl) on the floatability and wettability of both minerals were studied using single-mineral flotation and contact angle measurement. The flotation experiments demonstrated [...] Read more.
The natural wettability of apatite and dolomite and the effect of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and sodium oleate (NaOl) on the floatability and wettability of both minerals were studied using single-mineral flotation and contact angle measurement. The flotation experiments demonstrated that adding NaOl, apatite, and dolomite had good floatability. After adding H2SO4, the floatability of apatite decreased significantly. H2SO4 effectively inhibits apatite flotation. Contact angle measurements show that the use of H2SO4 induces a significant difference in surface wettability between apatite and dolomite. The moderate addition of H2SO4 can increase the contact angle of dolomite. In order to study the selective inhibition mechanism of H2SO4 in phosphorite flotation, molecular dynamics simulations (MDSs) were conducted to investigate the interaction between H2SO4 and fluorapatite and dolomite at the atomic–molecular level. The results of MDSs reveal that H2SO4 interacts with Ca sites on both fluorapatite and defective dolomite surfaces, hindering the interaction of NaOl with Ca sites on both mineral surfaces. SO42− ions cannot prevent the interaction of oleate ions with Mg sites on dolomite surface. It is worth mentioning that SO42− ions occupy the defective vacancies formed due to the dissolution of CO32− on the surface of dolomite and interact with Ca sites. The remaining H2SO4 is subsequently adsorbed onto the surface of dolomite. Experimental and simulation results show that, due to the interaction of H2SO4 and NaOl, the surface of apatite can still undergo hydration forming a water molecule layer and maintaining a macroscopic hydrophilic property. In contrast, the oleate ions form an adsorption layer on dolomite transitioning it from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic state. During the phosphate flotation process, the addition of an appropriate amount of sulfuric acid can further diminish the hydration of the dolomite surface, so that the surface of dolomite is more hydrophobic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industrial Minerals Flotation–Fundamentals and Applications)
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19 pages, 5623 KiB  
Article
Synergistic Effect of Frequently Found Ions in the Flotation of Pb-Zn Sulfide Ores on Air/Water Interface
by Can Gungoren, Saleban Mohamed Muse, Mert Terzi, Mehmet Faruk Eskibalci, Ilgin Kursun Unver and Orhan Ozdemir
Minerals 2023, 13(10), 1236; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13101236 - 22 Sep 2023
Viewed by 624
Abstract
The aqueous ions influence the properties of air bubbles and, therefore, the recovery of flotation. This study aims to reveal the synergistic effect of frequently found ions in the flotation of Pb-Zn sulfide ores. In this context, dynamic surface tension measurements, bubble coalescence [...] Read more.
The aqueous ions influence the properties of air bubbles and, therefore, the recovery of flotation. This study aims to reveal the synergistic effect of frequently found ions in the flotation of Pb-Zn sulfide ores. In this context, dynamic surface tension measurements, bubble coalescence time, Sauter mean diameter (SMD), bubble size distribution (BSD), and dynamic foam stability (DFS) measurements were carried out using artificial process waters (APWs). APW with the minimum ion concentration is expressed as “APW1” with the ionic strength (I) of 0.03 mol/dm3. The concentration of the ions in APW1 was increased by 3, 5, and 10 times, and thus APW3 (I = 0.08 mol/dm3), APW5 (I = 0.13 mol/dm3), and APW10 (I = 0.26 mol/dm3) were prepared, respectively. The results of this study indicated that the surface tension increased slightly in the presence of APW related to the ion concentration. Potassium ethyl xanthate (KEX) at high concentrations was effective in the reduction of surface tension. As the APW concentration increased, finer bubbles were obtained with a narrower size range. The stability of the foam increased with butyl glycol (BG) and APW concentration. There was no need to use a frother (BG) for the flotation experiments in the presence of APW1 or APWs with higher ionic strength. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industrial Minerals Flotation–Fundamentals and Applications)
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