Minerals Engineering 160 (2021) 106705

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Investigations on the depressant effect of sodium alginate on galena

flotation in different sulfide ore collector systems
Wei Chen a, b, *, Fanfan Chen a, Zhihao Zhang a, Xiaozhen Tian a, Xianzhong Bu a, Qicheng Feng c
a
School of Resources Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, PR China
b
State Key Laboratory of Mineral Processing, BGRIMM Technology Group, Beijing 100160, PR China
c
State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The depressant effect of sodium alginate on galena flotation in different collector systems was investigated,
Flotation mainly through micro-flotation tests, zeta potential measurements and molecular dynamics simulations. The
Collector micro-flotation results showed that the depressant effect of sodium alginate depended largely on collector type.
Galena
Galena flotation was effectively and totally depressed by sodium alginate when ammonium dibutyl dithio­
Sodium alginate
Molecular dynamics simulation
phosphate acted as collector. When diethyldithiocarbamic acid cyanoethyl ester acted as collector, sodium
alginate could only partly inhibit the galena flotation. However, when butyl xanthate acted as collector, sodium
alginate could not exhibit any depressant effect on galena flotation. The zeta potential measurement results
indicated that these reagents could adsorb on galena surface at different degree of strength and could further
result in subsequent different flotation behaviors. The molecular dynamics simulation results demonstrated that
the adsorption ability between galena surface and reagents could rank as butyl xanthate > sodium alginate >
diethyldithiocarbamic acid cyanoethyl ester > ammonium dibutyl dithiophosphate, which further determined
the depressant effect differences. The results could be potentially used for selecting suitable collector type in
some sulfide ore flotation plants when sodium alginate acted as galena depressant.

1. Introduction if no depressant is used (Chen et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2019).

Galena is a common and typical lead-containing mineral on the earth
(Chen et al., 2011; Huang et al., 2019b; Wang et al., 2019). It is usually
associated with other sulfide minerals in the ore deposits, such as
chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), sphalerite (ZnS) and marmatite ((Fe,Zn)S)
(Hayes and Ralston, 1988). Flotation is the commonly used method to
separate these sulfide minerals. The flotation separation process is
usually conducted in the order of copper, then lead and finally zinc
(Öztürk et al., 2018; Sehlotho et al., 2018). In the flotation plant,
dithiophosphate (or aero-float), xanthate and diethyldithiocarbamic
acid cyanoethyl ester are the very traditional and mostly used collectors
(Huang et al., 2019a; Tijsseling et al., 2019). It has been widely known
that these collectors could chemically adsorb on the particle surfaces of
these sulfide minerals and increase their surface hydrophobicity, in
which case the particles could then adhere onto bubbles and then get
concentrated in the froth products (Kostović and Gligorić, 2015; Tijs­
seling et al., 2019). Since the collectors could all adsorb on the galena
and other sulfide minerals similarly, it is very difficult to separate them
Typical depressants used for decreasing the flotability of galena in
sulfide ore flotation are mainly classified into two types: inorganic and
organic depressant. Of all the reported galena depressants, cyanide and
dichromate are widely known as toxic and hazardous to the environ­
ment (MA et al., 2016). Sulfite, sodium sulfite and polyphosphates could
also depress galena but they have high requirements for the flotation
operating conditions (Dávila-Pulido et al., 2011). Lime exhibits few
negative effects on the environment and is mostly used reagents in
polymetallic sulfide flotation plants but its usage is always dependent of
the collector type (Zanin et al., 2019). The short advantages of the
inorganic depressants result in a growing interest of developing some
organic reagents that are green and friendly to the environment and
could function in different collector systems. The environmentally
friendly organic reagents that have been reported, such as dextrin (Liu
Q, 2000), DHDTP (Zhang et al., 2019), SPH-SCT (Li et al., 2017), sodium
humate (Liu et al., 2016) and high-molecular polymers (Ng et al., 2018),
could also exhibit different effects when the collector changes (Feng
et al., 2021). As a result, the efficient and clean separation of the

* Corresponding author at: School of Resources Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, PR China.
E-mail address: xauatchenwei@163.com (W. Chen).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2020.106705
Received 30 September 2019; Received in revised form 18 October 2020; Accepted 3 November 2020
Available online 17 November 2020
0892-6875/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W. Chen et al.
chalcopyrite and galena remains challenging.
The depressant effect of sodium alginate on the galena flotation in
the chalcopyrite-galena separation process has been demonstrated
(Chen et al., 2019). The sodium alginate was found to be able to selec­
tively and chemically adsorb on the galena surface and interfere with the
subsequent collector coverage on the galena surface. However, the
previous work was conducted only in the single collector (ammonium
dibutyl dithiophosphate) system. The depressant effect of sodium algi­
nate on galena flotation under other sulfide collector systems was not
investigated.
Therefore, the objective of this work was to reveal the different
depressant effects of sodium alginate (SA) on galena flotation under
different sulfide collector systems. Three typical sulfide ore flotation
collectors including butyl xanthate (BX), diethyldithiocarbamic acid
cyanoethyl ester (DACE) and ammonium dibutyl dithiophosphate
(ADD) were used in the galena flotation and SA was used as depressant.
The different depressant behaviors of SA on galena in different collector
systems were studied by flotation tests, zeta potential measurement and
molecular dynamics simulation calculations.
2. Materials and experimental methods
2.1. Mineral samples and reagents
The galena sample used was obtained from Xitieshan Mine, Qinghai,
China (Chen et al., 2019). The purity of the galena samples was 95.44%,
according to the X-ray diffraction and chemical analysis results.
Sodium alginate (SA, (C6H7O6Na)n) used was purchased from
Zhengzhou Taber Trading Co. Ltd, Henan, China (Chen et al., 2019). SA
has been proved to be an effective depressant on galena flotation and its
adsorption behaviors on the galena particle/water interface has been
well analyzed. It was found that the adsorption between the Pb2+ on the
galena surface and the functional groups in SA was the main reason for
the selective depressant effect of SA in the galena-chalcopyrite separa­
tion process. The molecular structure of SA was shown in Fig. 1.
Butyl xanthate (BX, C4H9OCSSNa), diethyldithiocarbamic acid cya­
noethyl ester (DACE, C8H14N2S2) and ammonium dibutyl dithiophos­
phate (ADD, (C4H9O)2PSSNH4) were all purchased from Zhuzhou
Flotation Reagents Factory, Hunan, China. The three reagents have long
been used as the typical sulfide collectors. The three collectors were
selected on the basis of their representativeness in the xanthate, ester
and aerofloat type sulfide collectors. Pine oil was purchased from
Zhuzhou Flotation Reagents Factory, Hunan, China and was used as the
flotation frother. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) were used as pH regulators. All reagents were of AR grade.
Deionized water (Resistivity = 18.2 MΩ⋅cm) was used for all tests.
Fig. 1. Molecular structures of SA (a), BX (b), DACE (c) and ADD (d).
2
Minerals Engineering 160 (2021) 106705
2.2. Micro-flotation test
The micro-flotation tests on the galena samples were conducted on
an XFG flotation machine with a 40 mL plexiglass cell (Chen et al.,
2019). The − 74 + 38 μm size fractions of the galena samples were
prepared by wet-grinding the stored samples with a ceramic ball mill
and were used for the micro-flotation tests. The flotation slurry was
prepared by agitating the calculated weight of galena samples (2.0 g by
dry weight) into the plexiglass cell with distilled water for 1 min. The
pulp pH was adjusted to designed value using stored HCl or NaOH so­
lutions. After the depressant, collector and frother were added at the
desired concentration, the flotation slurry was conditioned for 6.5 min
(3 min for depressants or collectors and 0.5 min for frother). When the
flotation began, the air flow rate was controlled at 0.2 m3/h. The whole
flotation lasted for 4 min. After flotation, the froth products and the
unfloated products were collected, filtered, dried and weighed. The
flotation recovery was finally determined by the weight distributions
between the froth products and unfloated products.
Each flotation test was conducted at least 3 times. The mean value
was presented as the final value in the figures and the standard deviation
was shown as the error bars in corresponding recovery curves.
2.3. Zeta potential measurements
Zeta potentials of the galena particles were measured with a Delsa
440sx Zeta Potential Analyzer (Malvern Instruments Ltd., United
Kingdom). The mineral samples used for the zeta potential measure­
ments were prepared by wet-grinding the − 74 + 38 μm size galena
particles with an agate mortar. The samples for zeta potential mea­
surements were controlled to be all less than 5 μm.
For each measurement, 30 mg of the − 5 μm size fraction of minerals
was ultrasonically dispersed in 40 mL of the background solutions with a
KCl concentration of 1 × 10− 2 mol/L. The pH value was adjusted by the
stock HCl or NaOH solutions. Flotation reagent was added at a desired
concentration and the conditioning time for each reagent was set at 15
min under the room temperature at 25 ◦ C.
Each measurement was performed at least 3 times independently,
with a typical variation of ± 5 mV. The average value and the corre­
sponding standard deviation were presented in the zeta potential curves.
2.4. Molecular dynamics simulation
The adsorption energy of the flotation reagents on the galena surface
was calculated by the methods of molecular dynamic simulations
(MDS). The models of mineral surfaces and mineral-reagent complex
were built based on the Materials Visualizer module and Armorphous
Cell module, respectively. The MDS was conducted with the Materials
W. Chen et al. Minerals Engineering 160 (2021) 106705

Studio 6.0 software package (Foucaud et al., 2019; Li et al., 2019; Long
et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2020). The full explanation of the MDS method
can be seen in the Supplementary material.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Micro-flotation results

The flotability of galena was studied both in the presence and

absence of SA using different collectors. The results are shown in
Figs. 2–4.
Fig. 2 shows the effects of collector concentration and pH on galena
flotation. Galen could exhibit a certain degree of natural flotability in
the absence of any collector and gain a recovery of nearly 50% at its
natural pH, as shown by the intercept on the recovery axis in Fig. 2a.
When collector BX, DACE and ADD were used respectively, the galena
flotation recoveries all increased as the collector concentration
increased. For BX and ADD, galena could float very well with recoveries Fig. 3. The flotation performance of galena as a function of SA dosage when
more than 80% when their dosage exceeded 20 mg/L. For DACE, galena BX, DACE and ADD were used as collector (pH at 9, c(BX) = 20 mg/L, c(DACE)
flotation recovery could also reach 70% when its concentration was = 60 mg/L, c(ADD) = 20 mg/L).
bigger than 60 mg/L. Though there existed some differences in the
galena recoveries, the results show that all these three reagents are good
galena collectors. In addition, their collecting ability are independent of
the pulp pH, as proved by the high recovery curves in the Fig. 2b.
The effect of SA dosage on the galena flotation performance in
different collector system is shown in Fig. 3. It is obvious that there
existed big differences in the flotation performance of galena in the
presence of SA, under different collector systems. For BX, the galena
flotation was hardly influenced by the increase of the SA concentration
(with flotation recovery maintaining around 80%), indicating that the
SA could not interfere with its collecting ability towards galena. For
DACE, the flotation recovery of galena decreased as the SA concentra­
tion increased. In the SA + DACE system, when SA concentration rose to
70 mg/L, the flotation recovery of galena declined to about 20% and did
not continue to decrease as the SA dosage increased. However, for ADD,
the flotation recovery of galena decreased more rapidly than that in the
DACE collector system. In the SA + ADD system, the when SA concen­
tration reached 30 mg/L, the galena flotation had been totally
depressed, with recovery being very close to 0. The results in the Fig. 3
show that the depressant effect of SA towards galena is dependent of Fig. 4. The flotation performance of galena using SA as depressant and BX,
both the collector type and dosage. DACE and ADD as collectors under different pH (c(SA) = 70 mg/L, c(BX) = 20
The effect of pulp pH on the depressant effect of SA in different mg/L, c(DACE) = 60 mg/L, c(ADD) = 20 mg/L).
collector system was studied and the results are shown in the Fig. 4. It
can be seen that the pulp pH has certain influence on the galena flotation system, the depressant effect of SA towards galena maintained in the pH
in the presence of both SA and collector. In the SA + BX system, galena range of 9–11 but was largely weakened as pH continued to decrease to
kept good flotability across the whole pH range tested, showing that SA less than 9. When pH decreased to less than 6, the depressant effect of SA
could not depress the galena flotation at any pH. In the SA + DACE

Fig. 2. The flotation performance of galena using BX, DACE and ADD as collectors alone under different concentration (a, pulp pH at 9) and different pulp pH (b, c
(BX) = 20 mg/L, c(DACE) = 60 mg/L, c(ADD) = 20 mg/L).

3
W. Chen et al.
towards galena nearly disappeared, with galena recovery backing up to
about 70%. In the SA + ADD system, the depressant effect of SA towards
galena basically kept in the pH range of 6–11, only with a small discount
when pH was below 8. The results show that the depressant effect of SA
towards galena is also dependent of pulp pH as the collector type varies.
It could be concluded that the intensity of the SA’s depressant effect
towards galena is ranked as ADD > DACE > BX.
SA could chemically adsorb on the galena surface (Chen et al., 2019).
The adsorption was found to be attributed to the very stable metal
complex formed by the Pb2+ on the galena surface and the —COO— in
the SA molecule. The adsorption could cover the galena surface and
remarkably increase its hydrophility and decrease the flotation of galena
particles. However, the above flotation results in different collector
systems show that the depressant effect of the SA towards the galena
might also be largely affected by the adsorbing ability of the corre­
sponding collector. It is very likely that the adsorption strength of the
reagent on galena surface determines the depressant effect of SA. In this
case, it may also be inferred from the flotation results that the adsorption
strength of the collectors on the galena surface at pH 9.0 can be ranked
as BX > DACE > ADD. The deduction very important for explaining the
adsorption difference induced by the different reagent schemes.
However, we found it nearly impossible to observe any characteristic
peak of macromolecular reagent sodium alginate under ultraviolet
spectrophotometer, which further made it very difficult to detect the
adsorption amount of the SA in the presence of different collectors.
Therefore, the zeta potential data and the MDS were utilized to conclude
the adsorption performance of the reagents on galena surface.
3.2. Zeta potential results
In order to reveal the mechanism of different depressant perfor­
mances of SA on the galena flotation in different collector systems, the
zeta potentials of galena particles were measured and the results are
shown in Fig. 5.
For bare galena, its zeta potential decreased as pulp pH increased
from 7 to 12 (from − 16.5 mV to − 30.3 mV). With SA treatment, the zeta
potential of galena declined and maintained in the − 40 mV to − 50 mV
range. As pH increased, the galena with SA adsorption decreased
slightly, showing that the SA coverage on the galena surface was quite
stable. However, with SA + BX treatment, the zeta potential of galena
continued to decrease and met a big drop. When pH was at the vicinity of
9.0, the subsequent addition of BX made the zeta potential of galena
surface decrease from − 43.4 mV to − 54.5 mV, indicating that the BX
Fig. 5. Zeta potential of galena with treatment of different reagent schemes, as
a function of pulp pH (c(SA) = 70 mg/L, c(BX) = 20 mg/L, c(DACE) = 60 mg/L,
c(ADD) = 20 mg/L).
4
Minerals Engineering 160 (2021) 106705
could preferentially adsorb on the galena surface in the presence of SA
pre-adsorption. With SA + DACE treatment, the zeta potential of galena
also decreased, compared with the SA treatment line. It should also be
noticed that the decrease in the zeta potential caused by SA + DACE
treatment (around − 45 mV) was much smaller than that caused by SA +
BX treatment. Though the decrease was not big, it indicated that DACE
could dominate the galena surface in the presence of SA on some extent.
With SA + ADD treatment, the zeta potential of galena was basically the
same as SA treatment line, showing that ADD could hardly influence the
galena surface in the presence of SA.
The changes in the zeta potential of galena surface agreed well with
the flotation results above and could explain the depressant effect dif­
ferences in different collector system. It was probably the results of the
competitive adsorption between the SA and the corresponding collectors
on the galena surface. When the adsorbing ability of SA is stronger than
the collector, the galena could be depressed (ADD treatment); when the
adsorbing ability of SA is weaker than the collector’s, the galena flota­
tion could not be depressed (BX treatment); when the adsorbing ability
of SA is almost on the same extent as the collector (DACE treatment), the
galena flotation was only partly influenced. The zeta potential results,
coupled with the flotation results could qualitatively determine the
relative adsorption strength of the above mentioned reagents.
3.3. Molecular dynamics simulation results
In order to find out the quantitative results that could help verify the
flotation and zeta potential results, the simulation diagram of the
adsorption behaviors of relative reagents on the galena surface model
was presented and is shown in Fig. 6. The interaction energy was
calculated and the result is shown in Table 1.
It was first noted that sodium alginate and the 3 collectors could all
adsorb on the galena surface by the interactions between their func­
tional groups and Pb sites, as shown in Fig. 6. This agreed well with the
interaction energy calculation results, as shown in the Table 1. All ΔE
values were negative, indicating that these reagents could automatically
adsorb on the galena surface. However, it was also noted that the
interaction energy for each reagent was different, implying there existed
competitive adsorption processes on the galena surface. According to the
interaction energy data, it could be seen that the adsorption strength of
the 3 collectors on galena surface could be ranked as: BX (-44.12
kJ⋅mol− 1) > DACE (-36.03 kJ⋅mol− 1) > ADD(–32.86 kJ⋅mol− 1). There­
fore, BX always dominated the galena surface in the presence of SA; ADD
could hardly exert any influence on galena surface when SA was used.
For DACE, its adsorption was partly affected by the SA and there existed
competitive adsorption between the two reagents. This is also the reason
why SA’s depressant effect towards galena was dependent of the col­
lector type.
The above MDS data were obtained in vacuum and did not take the
actual flotation conditions into account when comparing the relative
interaction energies among the collectors and depressants. However, the
simulation result obtained in vacuum could provide some guidance for
theoretically explaining the adsorption differences between several re­
agents, as the real flotation factors such as water phase, bubble phase
and mineral surfaces may exhibit the same amount of influence on
different interaction systems.
4. Conclusions
Sodium alginate was demonstrated to exhibit different depressant
effects on galena flotation in different collector systems. When ammo­
nium dibutyl dithiophosphate acted as collector, sodium alginate could
effectively depress galena flotation in the pH range of 8.0–12.0. When
butyl xanthate was used as collector, sodium alginate could not show
any depressant effects in the pH range of 7.0–12.0. When dieth­
yldithiocarbamic acid cyanoethyl ester acted as collector, sodium algi­
nate could exhibit weak depressant effect in the pH range of 9.0–12.0.
W. Chen et al. Minerals Engineering 160 (2021) 106705

Fig. 6. Simulation of the adsorption performance of the reagents on the galena model surface.

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