Cassiterite recovery from a sulfide ore flotation tailing by combined gravity and flotation separations
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central south university
Publication date: 2020-11-30
Physicochem. Probl. Miner. Process. 2021;57(1):206-215
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ABSTRACT
Cassiterite (SnO2), which is the most important Sn-containing mineral, is extensively found in large quantities in discarded tailings. The recovery of cassiterite from discarded sulfide ore flotation tailings can reduce resource wastage and environmental pollution. The gravity separation technique can recover multiple valuable minerals, such as cassiterite, whose densities considerably differ from those of their associated gangue minerals. However, its recovery efficiency rapidly decreases as the mineral particle grain size decreases. To recover the finer valuable mineral particles from gravity separation tailings, flotation separation can be used as a supplementary method. In this study, the gravity and flotation separation techniques are combined to recover cassiterite from a sulfide ore tailing. The Sn grade and recovery of the final concentrate is 31.40% and 88.05%, respectively, thus indicating a highly efficient recovery of cassiterite by using the combined gravity and flotation separation technique. This study can be an important reference for recovering cassiterite from low-Sn-grade tailings.