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Date submitted2024-05-03
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Date accepted2024-11-07
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Date published2025-04-02
Assessment of ancylite ore dressability by flotation method
For more than 50 years, most rare earth elements were extracted from carbonatite deposits, which can contain different rare earth phases, but the main extracted minerals are bastnaesite, monazite and xenotime. Many studies focused on the improvement and development of dressing circuits for ores of these minerals. However, in some carbonatite complexes, rare earth deposits are composed partly or mainly of ancylite ores. This type of rare earth ores was very poorly studied in terms of dressability – previous experiments with ancylite ores are rare and not productive enough. Ancylite is the main concentrator of rare earth elements in most carbonatite complexes of the Devonian Kola Alkaline Province (northwest Russia). Dressability of ancylite ore from the Petyayan-Vara carbonatite field in the Vuorijärvi alkaline-ultramafic complex was assessed using the flotation method. The complex is one of the most potential rare earth deposits associated with carbonatites in the Kola Region. Petrographic and mineralogical studies demonstrated the occurrence of abundant iron and barite oxide inclusions in ancylite, which imposes restrictions on physical separation of these three minerals. The study of petrogeochemical and mineralogical composition of fractions formed during mechanical grinding of ores to a size less than 2.0 mm showed that even at this stage of sample preparation, the finest-grained fractions (less than 0.071 mm) were enriched in ancylite (to 19 vol.% or more with a content of 15 vol.% in ore). Three classes of reagents were considered as collectors in flotation experiments: fatty acids, alkyl hydroxamic acids, and amino acid derivatives. The reagent from the amino acid derivative class was highly efficient. The use of such a collector in combination with sodium hexametaphosphate depressant made it possible to obtain a flotation concentrate in an open circuit with total rare earth oxides content 33.4 wt.% at 64.7 % extraction.
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Date submitted2024-04-12
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Date accepted2024-09-05
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Date published2024-11-12
Promising reagents for the extraction of strategic metals from difficult-to-enrich mineral raw materials
The need of the mining and processing industry for new types of directional reagents is due to the deterioration of the material composition of the processed ores. Low Au content (less than 0.5-1.0 g/t), finely dispersed Au inclusions (0.1-10.0 microns) in the ore, similar properties of the separated minerals have an extremely negative effect on flotation performance when using traditional reagents, which leads to significant losses of valuable metal with enrichment tailings. Expanding the range of domestic flotation reagents based on the latest achievements of fundamental research and their targeted application at mining and processing companies will compensate for the negative impact of the mineral composition of raw materials and ensure maximum extraction of strategic metals from difficult-to-enrich ores. The use of modern research methods (scanning electron and laser microscopy, UV spectrophotometry, XRF and chemical analysis) made it possible to visualize the adsorption layer of new reagents-collectors of a number of dithiocarbamates with different structures of a hydrocarbon radical and an organic modifier on the surface of gold-containing sulfides. The amount of adsorbed reagents on the surface of minerals has been experimentally determined. The specific features of the fixation of reagents on minerals of various compositions led to optimal correlations of their consumption in the flotation process. Scientifically based reagent regimes ensured an increase in the gold content in the concentrate and a decrease in the loss of gold with tailings by 5-6 % during flotation enrichment of the refractory ore of the Malinovskoe deposit.
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Date submitted2024-04-11
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Date accepted2024-06-03
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Date published2024-07-04
Assessment of the efficiency of acid mine drainage purification (using the example of copper-pyrite mines in the Middle Urals)
According to the results of the anti-rating of regions with extreme pollution of watercourses in the Sverdlovsk region, the largest number of polluted rivers has been recorded in recent years – more than a quarter of all high and extremely high pollution. One of the sources of pollution of natural water bodies in the Middle Urals are closed and flooded copper-pyrite mines, where acidic mine drainage continue to form and unload to the surface. Several of them have organized collection and a two-stage acidic drainage purification system, including neutralization with lime milk and settling in a clarifier pond. Despite the identical schemes, different indicators of pollutants are recorded during discharge into water bodies. The aim of the work is to evaluate the effectiveness of the applied acid mine drainage purification system and identify the parameters affecting the quality of treated mine water. Laboratory studies were performed using methods of flame emission spectrometry, flame atomic absorption, atomic absorption spectrometry, mass spectrometry with ionization in inductively coupled plasma, potentiometric, etc. It has been established that the existing mine drainage purification system at the Degtyarskii mine makes it possible to significantly reduce the concentrations of most toxic components of mine waters to almost standard values. At the Levikhinskii mine, the multiplicity of exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations reaches hundreds and thousands of times. To achieve a higher degree of purification, it is necessary that the duration of passive purification is sufficient for the reactant to interact with acidic waters. However, to ensure this possibility, it will require the creation of a cascade of ponds with an area of several thousand hectares. If the current two-stage system is quite effective for the Degtyarskii mine, then for Levikhinskii it is necessary to switch to the use of more modern systems, including three stages of purification.
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Date submitted2022-03-01
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Date accepted2022-05-25
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Date published2022-12-29
Study on the rheological properties of barite-free drilling mud with high density
Improved drilling and reservoir penetration efficiency is directly related to the quality of the drilling mud used. The right choice of mud type and its components will preserve formation productivity, stability of the well walls and reduce the probability of other complications. Oil and gas operators use barite, less often siderite or hematite weighting agent as a weighting component in the composition of drilling muds for the conditions of increased pressure. But the use of these additives for the penetration of the productive formation leads to the reduction of filtration characteristics of the reservoir, as it is almost impossible to remove them from the pore channels. Therefore, barite-free drilling mud of increased density based on formic acid salts with the addition of carbonate weighting agent as an acid-soluble bridging agent is proposed. The results of experimental investigations on rheological parameters of barite-free solutions are given and the obtained data are analyzed. Based on the comparison of results it is recommended to use high-density drilling mud on the basis of formic acid salts (sodium and potassium formate) and with the addition of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide with molecular mass of 27 million.
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Date submitted2021-03-12
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Date accepted2021-04-12
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Date published2021-06-24
Increasing the efficiency of phosphate ore processing using flotation method
The paper presents flotation of two phosphate ore samples of different origin. Statistical analysis was used to study the effect of operating parameters on flotation efficiency. The paper proposes to increase the efficiency of flotation processing of magmatic phosphate ore with a low grade of the valuable component (P 2 O 5 = 10.88 %), containing nepheline and feldspars, by means of direct anionic flotation. Authors present an optimization of anionic flotation using tall oil fatty acids mixed with anionic phospholane as an anionic collector. The effect of adding soda ash to compensate for the influence of calcium cations on technological parameters of P 2 O 5 flotation was examined. The results of studying the flotation of nepheline ore (flotation tailings of magmatic phosphate ore) showed that replacement of phospholane with oxyethylated isotridecanol allowed to obtain a high-quality concentrate. It was estimated that with the addition of Na 2 CO 3 in the amount of 2,000 g/t, a concentrate was obtained with the grade and recovery of phosphorus pentoxide equal to 39.15 and 94.19 %, respectively. The paper proposes to increase the efficiency of flotation processing of sedimentary phosphate ore with a low grade of the valuable component (P 2 O 5 = 22.5 %), containing gypsum and quartz, by means of desliming followed by anionic or cationic reverse flotation. Tall oil fatty acid with anionic phospholane was used as a collector in anionic reverse flotation, and amine was used in cationic reverse flotation. Sodium tripolyphosphate was used as a P 2 O 5 depressant. It was found to be an effective depressant in both anionic and cationic flotation. When analyzing the statistical plan, it was estimated that the maximum grade of the valuable component in the concentrate (P 2 O 5 = 31.23 %) and the recovery to concentrate of 95.22 % were obtained in the chamber product at amine consumption of 950.88 g/t and sodium tripolyphosphate consumption of 500 g/t.