Recovery of fine cassiterite from tin tailings slime by froth flotation

Tin gravity slime tailings of Datun mineral processing plant in south-eastern China contains fine and ultrafine cassiterite. Tin recovery from the slime tailings was studies in the presence of different flotation reagents. A flotation process has been used on a laboratory scale to investigate the effect of various reagents such as collectors, auxiliary collector, activators, ect., and theirs dosages in neutral flotation environment. To reach an optimum tin recovery, different dosages of the reagents were also studied. Due to cassiterite is friable and a large amount of fines and slimes were generated. Usually de-sliming is used to prevent slime coating and to increase the recovery of tin. However, analyses have shown that fine particles in the sample mostly contain tin, thus de-sliming was not suggested. By applying the process, ultrafine cassiterite can be efficiently recovered from the tailings slime by one rougher process, and the concentrate assaying 1.20% Sn with a recovery of 89.10% was obtained.