GB1301461A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1301461 Wet separation of granular materials WINTERSHALL AG 5 Jan 1970 495/70 Heading B2H In a process for separating granular materials by froth flotation a fine-grain (0.06-1mm.) loading agent is added to the flotation medium to increase its apparent specific gravity whereby the proportion of the coarse-grain (1 mm. or over) fraction of the material separated in the froth is increased. Salts and insoluble substances, e.g. ferrosilicon or magnetite, may be used as loading agents with flotation in salt liquor, and insoluble substances may be used with flotation in water. Alternatively, the. residue from a previous flotation may be used. In one example, coarse-grain (1-4 mm.) sylvite (KC1) is separated from mineral rock salt (NaCI) by flotation from a saturated NaCl/KCl solution containing fuel oil, a frothing agent, a collector consisting of alkylamine hydrochloride and a fine-grain (0.06-1.0 mm.) loading agent having a specific gravity of 1.6 g/cc. In another example, in a NaCl/KCl separation by flotation of NaCI with condensation products of fatty acid and urea, fine-grain kieserite is used as a loading agent to cause coarse-grain NaCl to float. Kieserite in a saturated salt solution may be floated by the addition of NaCI and kieserite in water by an insoluble loading agent. The loading agent may be recovered from the frothed concentrate or from the residue by screening, sifting, magnetic, electrical or electrostatic separation, by further flotation or by dissolving in water.