Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

The role of the interfacial electrical condition on the adsorption of collectors on mineral surfaces has been studied by electrophoretic mobility.And adsorption measurements made on zircon.From the investigation of the electrokinetic properties of zircon, H+ and OH- are seen to act as potential determining ions, thus controlling the electrical nature of this mineral.The isoelectric point of zircon occurs at a pH of approximately 5.0, and it is evident, therefore, that the zircon surface would be positively charged below a pH of 5.0 and negatively charged above this pH. The adsorption of collectors therefore depends strongly on the pH of the solution; anionic collectors are adsorbed on positively charged surfaces and cationic collectors on negatively charged surfaces. This, in turn, defines the effective flotation condition with respective collectors, for this mineral.The above results have been correlated with the flotation behavior obtained by the simplified flotation test using a modified Hallimond tube.