Relative floatability as a criterion for evaluating the separation performance of phosphate from iron

This work was aimed to study the relative floatability of phosphate flotation by means of kinetic analysis. The relative floatability is important to determine how selectively the phosphate is separated from its impurities. The effects of pulp pH, solid content, reagents dosage (depressant, collector and co-collector) and conditioning time were investigated on the ratio of the modified rate constant of phosphate to the modified rate constant of iron (relative floatability). The results showed that a large dosage of depressant associated with a low value of collector resulted in a better relative floatability. Increasing the co-collector dosage, conditioning time and pH increased the relative floatability up to a certain value and thereafter resulted in diminishing the relative floatability. Meanwhile, the results indicated that increment of solid concentration increased the relative floatability in range investigated. It was also found that that maximum relative floatability (16.05) could be obtained in pulp pH, 9.32, solid percentage, 30, depressant dosage, 440 g/t, collector dosage, 560 g/t, co-collector dosage, 84.63 g/t and conditioning time, 9.43 min.