The floatability of diaspore and three kinds of silicate minerals,including kaolinite,illite and pyrophyllite,by a cationic Gemini surfactant as collector and starch as depressant was investigated as function of reagents concentration and pulp pH.Further studies of artificially mixed minerals and bauxite ore were also detailedly conducted.At last,the pre-desliming reverse flotation separation process was adopted.It can be concluded that the combinational use of a Gemini cationic collector and the starch depressant is effective.The concentrates with Al2O3 to SiO2 mass ratio of 9.66 and the recovery of Al2O3 of 71.73% are obtained from natural bauxite ore(A/S=5.70) at pH value of around 10.
The flotation of kaolinite using a series of tertiary amines （N,N-dimethyl-dodecyl amine （DRN）, N,N-diethyl-dodecyl amine （DEN）, N,N-dipropyl-dodecyl amine （DPN） and N,N-dibenzyl-bodecyl amine （DBN）） was investigated. The results show that the maximum recoveries of kaolinite for DEN, DPN and DRN are 93%, 88% and 84%, respectively, but that of DBN is very low. On the basis of zeta potential and FT-IR spectra, the ionization of surface hydroxyl and isomorphic exchange of surface ions account for the charging mechanisms of kaolinite surface. The adsorption mechanism of tertiary amines on kaolinite surface is mainly electrostatic. The isoelectric point （IEP） of kaolinite increases from 3.4 to some more positive points after the interaction of kaolinite with the four tertiary amines. The FT-IR spectra of kaolinite change with the presence of some new sharp shapes belonging to the tertiary amines. The inductive electronic effects and space-steric effects of -CH3, -C2H5, -C3H7 and -C7H7 bonding to N atom result in different collecting power of the four tertiary amines.
