Molecular Engineering and Controlled Nano-assembly for Complex Sulfide Flotation in High Salinity Water

高品位矿石资源的枯竭促使加拿大采矿和选矿行业探索加工低品位矿石的新技术。要有效地从低品位矿石中回收有价值的矿物，需要强化细磨以解放矿物，并采用新的细粒浮选技术。随着零排放环境法规的日益严格，再生水被用于选矿和油砂开采。结果，循环水中的盐度或总溶解固体(TDS)显著增加。这些升高的离子浓度，以及在高pH值下金属氢氧化物的沉淀，延缓了捕收剂与矿物表面的反应，降低了选择性。这些问题限制了回收的高盐度水或海水在选矿中的有效性。

The depletion of high-grade mineral ore resources has driven Canada’s mining and mineral processing industry to explore new technologies to process lower grade ores. The effective recovery of valuable minerals from low-grade ore requires intensive fine grinding for mineral liberation and a new technology for fine particle flotation. With increasingly stringent environment regulations for zero discharge, recycled water is used for mineral processing and oil sands extraction. As a result, salinity or total dissolved solids (TDS) in the recycled water has increased significantly. These elevated ionic concentrations, as well as the precipitation of metal hydroxides at high pH, retard the collector’s reaction with mineral surfaces and lower the selectivity. These problems limit the effectiveness of recycled high-salinity water or seawater in mineral processing.