FLOCCULATION OF FINE APATITE AIMED AT REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL WATER USE PROBLEMS IN MINERAL PROCESSING PLANTS

Abstract

"Water treatment technologies involving pre-treated industrial effluents without transporting them to the tailing dump are of interest primarily from an environmental point of view, as they reduce the environmental burden. The paper studies the possibility of purification of process waters from apatite concentrate production from suspended particles and water-soluble impurities using polyacrylamide flocculants. By studying the processes of adsorption of H+ and OH- ions from aqueous solutions, the acid-base properties of the surface of the solid phase of the most polluted technological product - the drain of the apatite concentrate thickener - the mineral composition of which is 90% apatite have been studied. The influence of the reagents present in the processing technology on the quantitative ratio of acid-base centres on the apatite surface has been evaluated. It has been shown that the interaction of these reagents with the mineral creates prerequisites for a greater efficiency of the anionic flocculant. The electro-surface properties of apatite treated with various reagents were studied using the laser Doppler electrophoresis method. The mechanism of fixation of ions present in the dispersion medium on the surface of apatite was studied by infrared spectroscopy. In order to determine the conditions under which various flocculants are in the most ionized state, studies were conducted on the change in the viscosity of the polyelectrolyte solution at different pH values. The position of the isoionic point for samples of cationic and anionic flocculants in the presence of reagents used in the apatite flotation and dehydration of apatite concentrate was studied. A research has been carried out on ""model"" and real suspensions in circulating water for a number of cationic, anionic and nonionic flocculants. The kinetic and concentration dependences of the flocculating capacity of the studied reagents were determined, which confirmed the high efficiency of the anionic type reagents"