Beneficiation of Saudi phosphate ores by column flotation technology

Phosphoric acid industry is expected to develop in Saudi Arabia in the near future. This is ascribed to the discovery of phosphate in AI-Jalamid area located in the northern region of Saudi Arabia, the availability of sulfur as a by-product from petrochemical industries and the construction of phosphate fertilizers required by the growing agricultural sector. The discovered Saudi phosphate ores are of sedimentary origin with calcite and dolomite as the main impurities. The beneficiation of this type of ores is a key factor for the successful production of phosphoric acid by the wet process. In the present work, a flotation column has been designed and applied in the beneficiation of Al-Jalamid Saudi phosphate ores of the calcareous type by reverse scheme. The significant parameters like superficial gas velocity, slurry feed rate, particle size of processed ore, wash water consumption and collector dosage of flotation process are investigated to achieve the best recovery and quality of the beneficiated ores.The results of this study revealed that column flotation technology is a promising tool for beneficiation of calcareous phosphate ores. A high purity ore of 35% P2O5 can be easily achieved at a high recovery value of 95% starting from a rock contains 25% P2O5, high calcite content (52.7% CaO) and CaO:P2O5 ratio equals 2.1.