Selective flotation of rutile from almandine using sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Na-CMC) as a depressant

In this paper, Na-CMC was studied as a depressant for almandine during flotation separation of rutile using cationic surfactant, octadecyl amine polyoxyethylene ether (AC1815) as a collector. Results of micro-flotation studies suggested that Na-CMC was considered as a selective depressant for almandine. Zeta potential and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) were used to elucidate the interaction mechanism between the minerals (rutile and almandine) and Na-CMC. The XPS analysis results show that there was both the chemical and hydrogen bonding in the interaction between almandine and Na-CMC. Zeta potential measurements indicate that, the adsorption of carboxylic groups on the almandine ferrous active sites, takes place with chemisorption which in turn depressed the almandine floatability. Contact angles results on the other hand shows that the floatability of almandine was adversely affected after being treated with Na-CMC, while the same depressant did not have any pronounced negative effect on the floatability of rutile.