Influence of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) During Collectorless Flotation of Galena

Worldwide, galenaGalena PbS is the most abundant mineral sulfide for obtaining metallic lead; however, mineral deposits are frequently associated with impurities that contaminate the concentrate obtained during flotationFlotation, such as pyritePyrite or arsenopyrite. These minerals can be depressed efficiently with the addition of ordinary Portland cementOrdinary portland cement (OCP); however its effect in collectorlessCollectorless flotationFlotation galenaGalena is unknown. In this work, the depressantDepressant action of OPC on galenaGalena flotationFlotation as a function of pH was analyzed. Under highly alkaline conditions pH 12, a % w/w cumulative flotationFlotation of galenaGalena of 71.5 is obtained with a pulp potential of − 44.2 mV, with an electrical conductivity (k) of 1246 μS/cm, the decrease in the alkaline pH of the pulp by adding sulfuric acid depresses the flotationFlotation of galenaGalena, thus, at pH 9 a separation of around 10.81% w/w was obtained, with an oxidizing potential of + 352.2 mV.