Beneficiation characteristics of antimony minerals : a review. Part 1

• The mineral raw material that provides nearly all the world's supply of antimony is stibnite, Sb2S3. The flotation properties of this mineral are fairly well established. The beneficiation properties of other antimony minerals have been very little studied. Antimony oxides, pure antimony and jamesonite, Pb4FeSb6S14, are also recovered as values in addition to stibnite. Antimony oxides respond very poorly to flotation with xanthate collectors. The flotation properties of jamesonite are more akin to galena than to stibnite, and this mineral floats best at around natural pH without activation. The high antimony content of some very complex sulphide ores is a problem in beneficiation, giving concentrates heavily contaminated with antimony minerals which, if they cannot be separated, increase cost of smelting. These impurities include the lead-antimony sulfides jamesonite and boulangerite, the lead-antimony-copper sulfide bournonite, and the ferrous antimony sulfides gudmundite and berthierite. The flotation properties of the lead-antimony minerals grow more like those of galena the higher they grade in lead. Bournonite, a fairly common mineral in complex sulphide ores, floats well in process environments where chalcopyrite normally floats; in many cases this makes it impossible to separate from chalcopyrite. Initial studies have indicated that the ferrous antimony minerals have properties resembling those of pyrite and pyrrhotite

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Metallurgi och metalliska material (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Metallurgy and Metallic Materials (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Mineral Processing

Mineralteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)