Novel Surfactants to Enhance Collectors for the Direct Flotation of Apatite

With the decline in mineral feed grades, beneficiation will continue to face challenges such as obtaining high recoveries of industry-specified quality mineral concentrates while using lower quality feedstocks. The days of using standard saponified fatty acid–based collectors are over, due to the lack of selectivity with the increase of gangue minerals in these feedstocks. Collectors will need an upgrade. A novel alkylpolyglucoside (Mod APG, Cola®Float 1500) type surfactant was developed and investigated on its enhancement of the flotation properties of a standard fatty acid collector with the goal being to achieve an improved grade/recovery of apatite versus other more traditional surfactants.