IMPROVEMENT OF EGYPTIAN TALC QUALITY FOR INDUSTRIAL USES BY FLOTATION PROCESS AND LEACHING | ||||
| JES. Journal of Engineering Sciences | ||||
| Article 9, Volume 34, No 6, November and December 2006, Page 1813-1830 PDF (834.68 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Research Paper | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jesaun.2006.111354 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| M. M. Ahmed* 1; G. A. Ibrahim1; M. M. A. Hassan2 | ||||
| 1Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt | ||||
| 2Mining and Petroleum Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Qena, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Talc is an industrial mineral that is widely used. It is always associated with other minerals, which determine the quality of talc samples for industrial purposes. Various operating variables control the natural floatability of talc. For enhancement of talc flotation, sodium hexametphosphate is used as a depressant for associated gangue minerals. In addition, oleic acid (in an equal mixture with kerosene) is used as an anionic collector. The results presented in this paper provided useful and important information on how to improve the quality of talc for industrial uses. The optimum conditions were obtained at pH = 11, depressant dosage = 1.0 kg/t, collector dosage = 1.2 kg/t and pulp density = 200 g/L. At these conditions, SiO2 assay increased from 54.10% to 54.94%, MgO assay increased from 29.90% to 31.76%, CaO decreased from 0.80% to 0.42%, Al2O3 decreased from 5.50% to 3.11%, Fe2O3 decreased from 8.20% to 7.24%, the whiteness increased from 75.4% to 83.7%, and the loss on ignition decreased from 6.64% to 5.21%. The mass recovery of final concentrate was 92.4%. The component recoveries of SiO2 and MgO (the major constituents of talc) in the final concentrate were 93.8% and 98.2%, respectively. More improvement of talc quality was obtained by leaching of final concentrate of flotation with 10% dilute hydrochloric acid. The mass recovery of final product was about 85% of initial feed. In this final product, Fe2O3 decreased to 3.12%, CaO decreased to 0.38%, and Al2O3 decreased to 3.01%. The assay of SiO2 increased to 58.96%, MgO percent was nearly the same, the whiteness increased to 88.5%, and the loss on ignition decreased to 4.03%. The final product is suitable for many industrial uses such as low-loss electronics (a type of ceramics), paints, rubber, plastics, roofing, textiles, refractories, insecticides and coating of welding rods. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Talc; flotation; pH; depressant; collector; pulp density; sodium hexametphosphate; oleic acid; leaching; industrial purposes | ||||
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