Selective separation of carrollite and chalcopyrite at low alkalinity with xanthan gum as a depressant

The flotation separation of chalcopyrite and carrollite, the two primary copper and cobalt minerals in sedimentary copper-cobalt ores, has been less studied. In this paper, the role of xanthan gum (XG) as a depressor in the flotation separation of chalcopyrite and carrollite by a series of flotation tests, adsorption amount tests, zeta potential measurements, and Furier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The flotation tests showed that XG could selectively flotation separate the chalcopyrite and carrollite at low alkalinity. The results of reagents adsorption tests and zeta potential measurements illustrated that XG has a much stronger adsorption capacity on the surface of carrollite than chalcopyrite, inhibiting the subsequence adsorption of PBX on the carrollite surface. FTIR analysis further illustrated that XG is adsorbed on the carrollite surface by the combined action of hydrogen-bonded and carboxyl-metal complexes groups.