Efeito da granulometria da alimentação na flotação de espodumênio

Abstract

The AMG-Mineração spodumene flotation is a new route of concentration of spodumene on an industrial scale in Brazil. It is a major development challenge given the lack of literature for technical support, associated with the operational bottlenecks normally found in all plants. This work aimed to investigate the influence of the granulometry of flotation feed on the metallurgical recovery of the process to improve production. In this regard, detailed metallurgical balances were carried out by particle size distribution and flotation tests were conducted on bench and industrial scale using AMG-Mineração's laboratory and processing plant. The preliminary evaluation indicated a low recovery of Li2O in the +149µm granulometric range, which represented approximately 50% of the mass flotation feed. In order to better understand the behavior of the +149µm particles, and aiming to increase recovery, bench tests were carried out floating separately the +149µm and the -149µm material, assessing the behavior of the final recovery, if the flotation feed was divided into two particle sizes. At the beneficiation plant, tests were carried out by increasing the agitation of the first tank cell rougher and increasing the conditioning time (adding another conditioning tank).The results showed that floating separately the 149µm granulometric fraction increases the metallurgical recovery in the flotation by 18%, and that the increased agitation and conditioning time in the plant also increased the recovery, the latter with a very significant increase in the global metallurgical recovery by 29%.