Due to the strong natural floatability of molybdenite and talc, conventional flotation depressants are difficult to separate these two minerals. As a common depressant, starch has a strong inhibitory effect on both minerals (Castro et al., 2016), while sodium carboxymethyl cellulose has a weak inhibitory effect on both minerals (Chen et al., 2024). Therefore, selecting a proper depressant is the key for achieving the efficient flotation separation. This study investigated the flotation separation of talc and molybdenite using carrageenan as the depressant and sodium butyl xanthate (SBX) as the collector. The micro-flotation test results showed that carrageenan exhibited a strong depressing effect on both talc and molybdenite, and even stronger on molybdenite. However, molybdenite could achieve flotation after adding SBX, while talc was still suppressed. In addition, it was observed that the recovery of molybdenite by adding SBX first was higher than that of adding carrageenan first. A concentrate with a molybdenum grade of 50.64% and recovery of 87.34% was obtained in the artificial ore flotation with the initial grade of 28.52%. The adsorption mechanism of carrageenan on the surfaces of molybdenite and talc was studied using contact angle testing, adsorption capacity testing, zeta potential measurement, Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (SEM-EDS) analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. It was concluded that carrageenan physically adsorbs on both mineral surfaces, whereas SBX adsorbs selectively on the surface of molybdenite and competes with carrageenan for adsorption.

中文翻译：

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使用角叉菜胶作为抑制剂从滑石中浮选辉钼矿


由于辉钼矿和滑石具有很强的天然可浮性，传统的浮选抑制剂很难分离这两种矿物。作为一种常见的抑制剂，淀粉对两种矿物质都有很强的抑制作用（Castro等人，2016），而羧甲基纤维素钠对两种矿物质的抑制作用较弱（Chen等人，2024）。因此，选择合适的抑制剂是实现高效浮选的关键。本研究以角叉菜胶为抑制剂，丁基黄原酸钠 （SBX） 为捕收剂，研究了滑石和辉钼石的浮选分离。微浮选试验结果表明，卡拉胶对滑石和辉钼矿均表现出较强的抑制作用，对辉钼石的抑制作用更强。然而，辉钼石在加入 SBX 后可以实现浮选，而滑石仍然被抑制。此外，观察到先添加 SBX 对辉钼矿的回收率高于先添加角叉菜胶。人工矿石浮选获得钼品位 50.64% 的精矿，回收率为 87.34%，初始品位为 28.52%。采用接触角测试、吸附能力测试、zeta 电位测量、扫描电子显微镜-能量色散光谱仪 （SEM-EDS） 分析、傅里叶变换红外光谱 （FTIR） 和 X 射线光电子能谱 （XPS） 分析，研究了卡拉胶在辉钼石和滑石表面的吸附机理。得出的结论是，卡拉胶物理吸附在两种矿物表面，而 SBX 选择性吸附在辉钼矿表面，并与卡拉胶竞争吸附。