An Evaluation of Sodium Ethyl Xanthate for the Froth Flotation Upgrading of a Carbonatitic Copper Ore

The carbonatitic Palabora copper ore was ground to the less energy intensive coarse size consisting of 45% passing 75 µm in a ball mill for 20 min and froth floated in a 4.5 l Denver cell at varying dosages of the highly selective sodium ethyl xanthate (SETX) at 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 g/t.The concentrates were collected every 15 s at varying scraping times of 3, 7 and 10 min.The results obtained showed that the highest recovery of 86.1% was obtained at the 300 g/t SETX dosage with the lowest grade of 11.29%, while the highest grade of 13.95% occurred at the lowest recovery of 78%.The dosages of SETX used for the flotation was found to be generally higher than that of sodium iso-propyl xanthate (SIPX) used for another copper ore of non-carbonatitic origin.However, the successful flotation of the ore ground coarser than the conventional practice of 80% passing 75 µm is economically significant in view of the potential power conservation obtainable.