Flotação de minério de ferro

Abstract

The Brazil, currently has in production and export of iron ore one of the pillars of its economy, one of the largest producers of mineral commodity in the world. Strong demand for Brazilian iron ore, in addition to the lower levels found today by the mining industry, makes the production increase and concentration's processes have increasingly the need for optimization. Under this scenario, the flotation is a process of concentration most commonly used for selective separation of minerals, due to their high efficiency. The method basically consists in exploiting the differences in surface characteristics of the mineral by treating heterogeneous mixtures of particles suspended in the aqueous phase in which is introduced a gaseous phase. For this to be possible it is necessary that some basic features be observed. As most of the minerals are hydrophilic characteristics, in other words, have affinity for water, a property distinguishing must be induced thru the addition of reactants on the surface of the mineral, which aims to make the hydrophobic characteristics one wishes to flout minerals. In addition to differences in surface characteristics of the particles involved in the process, other factors must also be considered, such as particle size, the pH of the solution and equipments used. Due to their high efficiency, the flotation of iron ore is an extremely important technique in the mineral industry and worldwide is used in the concentration's process of iron ore.