Research on mineralogy and flotation for coal-series kaolin

The iron mineral was separated by froth flotation for the coal-series kaolin. The mineralogy of the coal-series kaolin was studied by several methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), particle size distribution and SEM/EDS analyses. The mineralogy demonstrated that pyrite was the main occurrence of iron in the coal-series kaolin. The influence of grinding time and pH on the flotation was researched so as to determine the optimal flotation conditions. The results of froth flotation showed that the mass fraction of pyrite in kaolin concentrate was 0.11% at 1.12% pyrite in the flotation feed, and hence 90.72% of total pyrite was separated by froth flotation. The findings in this study suggest that the effective pyrite separation from coal-series kaolin was achieved by grinding moderate time and controlling pH weak acid and neutral.