Effect of titanaugite on flotation behavior of ilmenite

The flotabilty of titanaugite and ilmenite and the effects of different size fractions of titanaugite on the flotability of ilmenite were studied by flotation tests and DLVO theoretical calculations. The flotation results show that ilmenite has good flotability, however, titanaugite has poor flotabitity, and titanaugite with the grain size bellow 10 μm has serious effect on the recovery of ilmenite.The results of DLVO theoretical calculations indicate that the total acting energy between the titanaugite and ilmenite particles at pH 5.9 is negative, showing as attraction, which causes the superfine titanaugite particles attach on the surface of ilmenite. At pH 8.5, because of large electrostatic repulsion energy, the total acting energy shows as strong repulsion, thus the superfine titanaugite particles can not attach on the surface of ilmenite.