Fluorite, barite and calcite are important industry minerals. However, they often co-exist, presenting difficulty in selectively separating them due to their similar surface properties. In this study, valonea extract and sodium fluosilicate were used as depressants to selectively separate them by flotation, with sodium oleate as the collector. The single mineral flotation results showed that valonea extract displayed the strongest depression on calcite, while sodium fluosilicate displayed the strongest depression on barite. These two depressants allowed selective separation of the three minerals through sequential flotation. The flotation of mixed minerals showed that 94% of the calcite was successfully depressed by the valonea extract, and 95% recovery of the fluorite was achieved in the subsequent flotation with sodium fluosilicate depressing barite. The different depressant–mineral interactions were investigated via electro-kinetic studies and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the Materials Studio 6.0 program. The valonea extract exhibited the strongest adsorption on the calcite surface, and sodium fluosilicate exhibited the strongest adsorption on the barite surface, which prevented oleate species from reacting with Ca²⁺ or Ba²⁺ surface sites. This study provides useful guidance for how to process fluorite, barite and calcite resources.

Kyanite and sillimanite are two polymorphic minerals with the same formula of Al₂SiO₅, but different crystal structures. Despite their high economic values, selectively recovering them by flotation is a challenge. In this study, the flotation behaviors of the two minerals with sodium oleate as the collector were examined at different pH conditions. Zeta potential measurement, infrared spectroscopic measurement, chemical speciation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement were conducted to identify the underpinning mechanisms. It is found that the flotation behavior of both minerals is different under the same flotation condition. The flotation recovery of sillimanite is much higher than that of kyanite in the presence of the collector sodium oleate. Sodium oleate adsorbs onto the surfaces of kyanite and sillimanite mainly through the chemical interaction of the ionic–molecular dimers with aluminum atoms at pH 8.0. The higher sillimanite flotation recovery between the two minerals is related to the higher electrostatic charge densities of the aluminum atoms in six-fold coordination, which leads to the higher collector adsorption.

This investigation aims to demonstrate the effects of hydrophobic tails on the affinity and relevant flotation response of sulfonate-based collectors for fluorite. For this purpose, a series of alkyl sulfonates with different hydrophobic tails, namely sodium decanesulfonate (C10), sodium dodecylsulfate (C12), sodium hexadecanesulfonate (C16), and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (C12B) were applied. The flotation tests showed that C12 and C12B had a better collecting performance than C10 and C16 at pH < 10, and the flotation recovery of fluorite was higher when adopting C12B as a collector compared with C12 with a strong base. The adsorption behaviors of collectors on the fluorite surface were studied through zeta potential, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. It was found that the affinity of alkyl sulfonates for fluorite was enhanced with the increase of the alkyl chain length from C10 to C16. The existence of phenyl in the hydrophobic tail of sulfonates could improve its activity for fluorite by reducing its surface tension. The abnormal phenomenon C16 with a high affinity for fluorite had a low collecting performance for fluorite mainly due to its overlong alkyl chain, resulting in low solubility in pulp, which restrained its interaction with fluorite. We concluded that C12B was the most applicable collector for fluorite among these reagents due to its high activity, high solubility, and low cost, which was further substantiated by calculating their molecular frontier orbital energy.

Using sodium oleate (NaOL) as a collector, the flotation characteristics of natural colorless fluorite (CF), green fluorite (GF), and purple fluorite (PF) were investigated through micro-flotation tests, collector adsorption measurements, and surface tension measurement. The micro-flotation results indicated that CF had a much better flotation response than both GF and PF, and had higher floatation recovery. The results demonstrated a considerable discrepancy in the interfacial properties between colorless and colored fluorite, even though all the samples were obtained from the same deposit, holding a similar high purity of CaF₂. The adsorption capacity of CF, GF, and PF for NaOL was 2.27, 4.18, and 8.21 × 10⁻⁶ mol/g under neutral conditions, respectively. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) measurements revealed that the carboxyl groups of NaOL reacted with Ca sites on the surface of fluorites by chemical adsorption. From the zeta potential analyses, PF exhibited a lower positive potential than CF and GF, mainly due to its surface carbonation. In the presence of NaOL, the surface potential of fluorites changed from positive to negative because the NaOL collector had been adsorbed onto the mineral surface and changed their surface potential, which was consistent with the flotation results at different pH values. We found that the floatability of the fluorite samples was influenced by their surface roughness, measured by an atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). PF can be floated with adding more reagent dosage than CF and GF to compensate for its higher surface roughness.

In this paper, magnesium sulfate was used as a lixiviant to recover rare earth from kaolin. The effects of column leaching conditions, such as the concentration of magnesium sulfate, liquid/solid ratio, flow rate, and pH of the magnesium sulfate solution on the leaching efficiency of rare earth and aluminum, were investigated. In addition, the leaching kinetics of rare earth and aluminum were analyzed based on the magnesium concentration. The results showed that the optimal leaching conditions 0.2 mol/L magnesium sulfate solution with no pH adjustment, 1.2:1 for the liquid/solid ratio, and at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min led to an 89% rare earth leaching efficiency and an 81% aluminum leaching efficiency. The aluminum leaching efficiency by magnesium sulfate was 7% less than that by ammonium sulfate. Moreover, the equilibrium time for rare earth was 33 min shorter than aluminum, which is of benefit to reduce the leaching time of aluminum. The leaching kinetic data fitted an unreacted shrinking-core model. Semi-empirical equations based on the apparent rate constant and magnesium concentration of rare earth and aluminum were established, and the reaction orders for rare earth and aluminum were determined to be 1.69 and 1.61, respectively. The results of this study could help to better understand and optimize the leaching process by magnesium sulfate.