Abstract:The lithium containing ore slurry obtained from a low-grade spodumene mine in Xinjiang through hydraulic cyclone desilting was used in this work. The influences of particle size distribution, flotation reagents, and separation process on the lithium recovery were investigated. The results showed that the Li2O content in the mud sample was 0.69%, and the mainly lithium-bearing minerals was spodumene. The mineral particle size was very small (D97=9.18μm), suggesting that it an ultra fine and difficult to separation low-grade mineral fine mud. Under the laboratory closed circuit conditions, with the usage of the Na2CO3-NaOH-CaCl2 composite modifier as slurry adjustment and EF1116 as lithium minerals collector, a lithium concentrate with a Li2O grade of 3.89% and a recovery rate of 52.95% was obtained relative to the feeding mud when it was used a rapidly slurry adjusting-the one rough flotation—one sweep flotation-two cleaner flotation-one selected-sweep flotation of intermediates stepwise separation process. The relative enrichment ratio of lithium mineral separation reached 5.6, which is 11.5 percentage points of Li2O recovery ratio higher than that of the one rough selection-one sweep flotation- two cleaner flotation of intermediates sequential regurgitation process. This study provides technical and data references for the recovery of lithium from the abandoned mineral fines produced by hydraulic cyclone desliming.
