Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.9
2.5
Journals
Minerals
Special Issues
Processing of Metal Sulfides in Seawater and Other High Ionic...
share announcement

Processing of Metal Sulfides in Seawater and Other High Ionic Strength Aqueous Media: Theory and Practice

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 November 2021) | Viewed by 4812

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Leopoldo Gutierrez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Universidad de Concepcion, Concepción 4070371, Chile
2. Principal Researcher of the Water Research Center for Agriculture and Mining CRHIAM (ANID/FONDAP/15130015), Victoria 1295, Barrio Universitario, Concepción, Chile
Interests: surface chemistry; froth flotation; rheology of mineral suspensions; geometallurgy; clay minerals in flotation; seawater in mineral processing; sensors development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Fernando Betancourt

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Universidad de Concepcion, Concepción 4070371, Chile
2. Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering CI2MA, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile
3. Center for Agriculture and Mining CRHIAM (ANID/FONDAP/15130015), Victoria 1295, Barrio Universitario, Concepción, Chile
Interests: thickening; filtration; mechanical classification; flocculation; mathematical modelling
Dr. Dennis Vega

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Universidad de Concepcion, Concepción 4070371, Chile
2. Academic Collaborator of the Water Research Center for Agriculture and Mining CRHIAM (ANID/FONDAP/15130015), Victoria 1295, Barrio Universitario, Concepción, Chile
Interests: conminution, particle classification, CFD

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of non-conventional sources of water such as seawater and other high ionic strength aqueous media to process metal-sulfides-bearing ores has become a more common practice in the mineral processing industry. The presence of inorganic and in some cases organic compounds strongly modifies the surface properties of particles of the metal sulfides and gangue minerals dispersed in water. As a result, the efficiency of the different stages of the processing plants of metal sulfide ores is strongly affected. One example is the use of seawater in concentrators located in some dry mining areas, which causes important changes in the physicochemical conditions of the mineral suspensions, affecting the efficiency of the whole processing chain (i.e., grinding, froth flotation, and solid–liquid separation).

We invite you to contribute to this Special Issue entitled “Processing of Metal Sulfides in Seawater and Other High Ionic Strength Aqueous Media: Theory and Practice”. Papers from academia and industry are welcome.

Dr. Leopoldo Gutierrez
Prof. Dr. Fernando Betancourt
Dr. Dennis Vega
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

  • seawater
  • grinding
  • classification
  • froth flotation
  • solid–liquid separation
  • heology of mineral suspensions
  • clays
  • sulfides

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

9 pages, 906 KiB  
Article
Biodepression of Copper-Activated Pyrite with Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in Flotation with Fresh and Seawater
by Francisca San Martín, Ignacio Valles, Willy Kracht, Tomás Vargas and Claudio Aguilar
Minerals 2021, 11(10), 1039; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/min11101039 - 25 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1617
Abstract
Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans has been shown to be a good depressant of pyrite in freshwater and seawater flotation. However, the effect of these bacteria over copper-activated pyrite has not been studied. At the industrial scale, the activation of pyrite with copper is a common [...] Read more.
Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans has been shown to be a good depressant of pyrite in freshwater and seawater flotation. However, the effect of these bacteria over copper-activated pyrite has not been studied. At the industrial scale, the activation of pyrite with copper is a common process that occurs because Cu2+ ions, released from other minerals, react with pyrite. This is a problem because Cu2+ ions facilitate the reaction of pyrite with the xanthate collectors, becoming hydrophobic and reaching the froth. In this study, microflotation experiments in a Hallimond tube were conducted to evaluate the depressant effect of A. ferrooxidans over non-activated and Cu-activated pyrite in freshwater and seawater flotation. The experiments were carried out at pH 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 and pyrite was mixed with CuSO4 at 2.5×10−5 and 5×10−5 M in order to activate its surface. Considering the results obtained in the microflotation tests, it is possible to conclude that Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is able to depress non-activated and Cu-activated pyrite at the entire pH range studied (4–12) in freshwater. On the other hand, the use of bacteria in flotation with seawater proved to be effective to depress non-activated and Cu-activated pyrite at pH 8 and 10 with better results achieved at pH 10. At this pH, the non-activated pyrite recovery dropped from 96% to 15%, and the recovery of Cu-activated pyrite dropped from 95% to 32% when the activation was carried out at 2.5×10−5 M, and from 87% to 50% when the activation was conducted at 5×10−5 M of CuSO4. The XPS analysis showed that chalcopyrite and copper (II) hydroxide were formed on the pyrite surface when it is contacted with CuSO4. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing of Metal Sulfides in Seawater and Other High Ionic Strength Aqueous Media: Theory and Practice)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 4046 KiB  
Article
Chalcopyrite and Molybdenite Flotation in Seawater: The Use of Inorganic Dispersants to Reduce the Depressing Effects of Micas
by Rodrigo Yepsen, Joaquín Roa, Pedro G. Toledo and Leopoldo Gutiérrez
Minerals 2021, 11(5), 539; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/min11050539 - 19 May 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2559
Abstract
The objective of this work was to study the effect of muscovite and biotite on the flotation of chalcopyrite and molybdenite in seawater, and the use of sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium silicate to improve copper and molybdenum recoveries. The impact of the inorganic [...] Read more.
The objective of this work was to study the effect of muscovite and biotite on the flotation of chalcopyrite and molybdenite in seawater, and the use of sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium silicate to improve copper and molybdenum recoveries. The impact of the inorganic dispersants on the settling properties of the resulting flotation tailings was also studied. It was found that muscovite and biotite depress the flotation of chalcopyrite and molybdenite in seawater, with this depressing effect being stronger at pH 11 than at pH 9. Sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium silicate increased the recoveries of copper and molybdenum in seawater. These dispersants render the mineral particles more negatively charged and remove the hydroxy-complexes of magnesium and calcium from the mineral particles causing dispersion of the slimes. The settling rates of the flotation tailings slightly decrease when sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium silicate were added in the flotation stage. The presence of ultrafine particles dispersed by the action of the inorganic dispersants negatively impacted the flocculation and sedimentation processes leading to high flocculant consumption, low settling rates and high turbidity of the supernatant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing of Metal Sulfides in Seawater and Other High Ionic Strength Aqueous Media: Theory and Practice)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop