Monitoring and reuse: a way to generating smaller amounts of effluents in mineral flotation systems

IGNACIO PEDRE; LUCILA P. MENDEZ DE LEO; FERNANDO BATTAGLINI; GRACIELA ALICIA GONZÁLEZ

Berlin

Congreso; 2nd Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference; 2017

ELSEVIER

Xanthates (R-O-CS2-K+)are organosulphur compounds used in the mineral treatment industry as collectoragents for the flotation of sulphides. Over 2x109 tons of ores areprocessed by flotation each year worldwide, and 50 to 300 g of xanthate are requiredto treat one ton of ore (1,2).These compounds are unstable at pH < 6.5, themain decomposition products being carbon disulfide and the corresponding alcohol.Since xanthate and CS2 are highly toxic to the aquatic flora andfauna (3), from the environmental point of view it is important to measure itsconcentration in the flotation slurry, in the processed ore, and in wastewater(1,4,5). In this work, we used ethyl xanthate as a model system to developsensors applicable to flotation baths where the concentration is usuallybetween 10 and 100 µM (6), with the goal of reducing the impact of oreprocessing activities.