INFLUENCE OF PARTICLES SHAPE CHARACTERISTICS OF GALENA ON THEIR FLOTABILITY UNDER THE FLOTATION BEHAVIOR

8th International Scientific Conference - SGEM2008, www.sgem.org, SGEM2008 Conference Proceedings/ ISBN: 954-918181-2, June 16-20, 2008, Vol. 1, 457-464 pp

ABSTRACT

The distributions of particle sizes and shapes are of great importance to industries
employing various materials in powdered form. The investigations have shown that
shape and morphological properties of particles affected subsequent processes such as
flotation. On the other hand, crushing and grinding are factors that cause creation some
changes in physical and chemical characteristics of processing materials such as
distributions of sizes and shapes. In this research, experimental studies to determine the
shape properties and floatability of galena were performed on the products of ball and
rod mills. Shape properties have been stated in terms of shape descriptors such as
elongation, flatness, roundness, and relative width by measuring on the projections of
particles using scanning electron microscope. The floatability characteristics of galena
were determined by flotation technique using the laboratory flotation cell. Finally, some
correlations were found between the shape properties and recovery rate of particles. The
results have shown that the recovery rate decreases with increasing roundness and
relative width, that these particles are slow floatable, i.e., elongated and flatted particles
having higher recovery rate indicated more hydrophobicity and are fast floatable.

Keywords: galena, metallic minerals, grinding, particle morphology, flotation, shape properties, hydrophobicity, image analysis system.