THE INFLUENCE OF GRINDING AIDS ON THE FLOATABILITY OF THE FINE CASSITERITE

The article presents the study of the grindability of cassiterite and discusses the relationship between grinding additives and the floatability of the cassiterite. The addition of surface activator and inorganic electrolyte is helpful in the reduction of grinding energy consumption and in the increase of grinding efficiency, but it is limited to certain conditions. Among the five grinding aids, which we used in our tests, surface activators such as ammonium acetate, benzyl arsenic acid and copper sulphate, had promoting grinding function only at concentration of 0.05 kg/Mg. Sodium hexametaphosphate was helpful for grinding only at concentration of 0.5 kg/Mg. Sodium trimeric phosphate can be helpful at different concentrations but it produces the best results at concentration of 0.05 kg/Mg. Among the above five grinding aids benzyl arsenic acid appeared to be the best one and the next was sodium tripolyphosphate. When benzyl arsenic acid was applied as a collector for cassiterite flotation in our experiments, efficiency was much higher than the notation productivity while adding grinding aids. Therefore, we think it is better not to use the grinding aids in that case.