Understanding the effect of mineralogy on muscovite flotation using QEMSCAN

Muscovite mica is an industrial mineral used in many different applications including coatings, construction materials and polymers. This mineral is commonly beneficiated using froth flotation, especially when treating finer particle sizes. A common flotation scheme employs a cationic amine collector for mica, at alkaline pH, with a depressant added to depress some of the common gangue minerals in muscovite deposits such as quartz and feldspars. This work examines the effects of Custamine 8113 (collector) and Norlig-H (depressant) on the flotation of a muscovite ore from a mineralogical perspective using QEMSCAN. In addition to traditional grade-recovery curves for the various mineral components of the ore, the QEMSCAN data are used to look at: size-by-size flotation recoveries, particle size differences between flotation concentrates and tailings, and mineral liberation and association. The lab-scale flotation results are then compared to idealized size-by-size grade-recovery curves calculated from the measured QEMSCAN data.