Minerals Engineering 77 (2015) 93–98

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

The effect of sea water on copper and gold flotation in the presence of
bentonite
Ming Zhang a, Yongjun Peng a,b,⇑, Ning Xu c
a
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
b
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, University of Queensland, Isles Road, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, QLD 4068, Australia
c
Minerals and Materials Science & Technology, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the flotation of a copper–gold ore in the presence of 10% bentonite in tap water and sea
Received 7 January 2015 water was investigated. It was found that bentonite had a deleterious effect on copper and gold flotation
Revised 26 February 2015 in tap water, but this deleterious effect was mitigated in sea water. Rheology measurements, settling
Accepted 5 March 2015
tests and Cryo-SEM analyses were conducted to understand the underpinning mechanism. It appears that
the high viscosity produced by bentonite due to its swelling capacity and cross-linked network structures
negatively affected flotation hydrodynamics and therefore copper and gold flotation in tap water. It is
Keywords:
interesting that sea water reduced the swelling capacity of bentonite and modified the association modes
Bentonite
Flotation
of bentonite platelets in flotation pulp, resulting in the breakup of links between the structures with rela-
Sea water tively large pores, which contributed to the improvement of copper and gold flotation.
Rheology Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Network structures

1. Introduction mineral processing industry has been increased. A number of flota-

Clay minerals are associated with a number of minerals and can
present a variety of problems in mineral flotation such as slime
coating, high gangue entrainment and high pulp viscosity resulting
in low mineral flotation recovery and/or low concentrate grade.
Due to anisotropic charges on edges and faces of clay minerals, clay
slime coatings may occur on positively and negatively charged
minerals, depressing mineral flotation (Peng and Zhao, 2011). In
flotation, clay minerals may also be floated through high mechani-
cal entrainment as a result of their colloid sizes significantly reduc-
ing the concentrate grade (Wang et al., 2013). Also due to their
anisotropic charges on edges and faces, clay minerals can form a
range of different aggregate structures increasing the viscosity of
flotation pulp. Zhang and Peng (2015) found that copper and gold
flotation was well correlated with pulp viscosity in the presence of
kaolinite and bentonite. Kaolinite increased the pulp viscosity
slightly and had a minor effect on copper and gold flotation recov-
ery, while bentonite increased pulp viscosity significantly decreas-
ing copper and gold flotation recovery.
On the other hand, with the depletion of fresh water, the use of
water with a high concentration of inorganic electrolytes in
⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Chemical Engineering, University of
Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Tel.: +61 7 3365 7156; fax:
+61 7 3365 3888.
E-mail address: yongjun.peng@uq.edu.au (Y. Peng).
tion plants in Australia, Canada, Chile and Indonesia are operated
with sea water (Philippe et al., 2011). It is documented that saline
water has a negative or positive effect on mineral flotation.
Flotation improvement in the presence of electrolytes as observed
in coal flotation is explained by the compression of the electrical
double layer by electrolytes, thus reducing electrical repulsion
between valuable minerals and bubbles (Kurniawan et al., 2011).
Another factor in improving mineral flotation in saline water is
the formation of smaller stable bubbles due to the influence of
the electrolytes on surface tension and gas solubility (Pugh et al.,
1997). Both factors are favourable for the particle-bubble attach-
ment process. It is also documented that an increase in ionic
strength can cause a negative effect on mineral flotation by
enhancing frothability and therefore increasing the recovery of
gangue minerals (Wang et al., 2013; Manono et al., 2012, 2013).
In clay science, it is well established that particle association
between clay mineral platelets determines the rheological beha-
viour of concentrated clay suspensions. Due to their anisotropic
structure and charge properties, clay platelets can form three dif-
ferent modes of association, edge-to-face (E–F), edge-to-edge
(E–E) and face-to-face (F–F) (Van Olphen, 1977). The E–F and E–E
contacts lead to voluminous three-dimensional ‘house-of-cards’
structures, accompanied by the increased viscosity. The F–F
contact refers to the formation of aggregates of paralleled clay
platelets and leads to thicker and larger flakes. It decreases the
viscosity of suspensions by reducing the number of units available

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2015.03.006
0892-6875/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
94 M. Zhang et al. / Minerals Engineering 77 (2015) 93–98
to build gel structures and the surface available for particle inter-
actions (Luckham and Rossi, 1999). Meanwhile, electrolyte solu-
tions at different ionic strengths can modify clay aggregate
structures and consequently the slurry rheology. Stawinski et al.
(1990) investigated the microstructure of bentonite at different
sodium concentrations via SEM imaging and found that a small
addition of salts (10 mmol/L) to a bentonite slurry led to the forma-
tion of edge-edge-type aggregates, whereas the highest concentra-
tion of salts addition (100 mmol/L) led to the formation of
compact, face-face-type aggregates. Heller and Keren (2001) stud-
ied the rheology of bentonite suspensions under the same NaC1
concentration range (0–100 mmol/L) and the results indicated that
clay association was the main mechanism that affected the slurry
viscosity. Palomino and Santamarina (2005) also suggested that
clay mineral particle associations were a function of electrolyte
concentration as a result of the balance between the van der
Waals attraction and the electrostatic repulsion. In the previous
work, we found that clay mineral particle interactions in fresh
water modified the pulp rheology and copper and gold flotation
was affected accordingly (Zhang and Peng, 2015). The presence
of different ions in sea water may further complicate clay mineral
particle interactions in the flotation system and hence pulp rheol-
ogy as well as mineral flotation performance. However, this aspect
has not been studied, but is important since a number of clayey
ores are floated in sea water.
In this study, bentonite was chosen as a representative of 2:1
structure clay minerals with swelling properties. Montmorillonite,
the main component of bentonite, is a layered clay mineral that
belongs to the smectite group. The thin sheets of montmorillonite
are held together by the interlayer bridging cations (typically Na+)
(Luckham and Rossi, 1999). Bentonite slurries display a significant
yield stress even at a low concentration due to the high swelling
and flocculation of fine clay platelets producing a viscous gel-like
structure (Goh et al., 2011). In this study, the effect of water quality
(tap water versus sea water) on the modification of bentonite par-
ticle association and subsequent copper and gold flotation was
studied.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials and reagents
A copper–gold ore with a low clay content was crushed to a size
of 2.36 mm before grinding and flotation. The mineral composi-
tions of this ore analysed by quantitative X-ray Diffraction (XRD)
are shown in Table 1. The major gangue minerals are quartz, albite,
muscovite with minor chlorite and kaolinite. The elemental
compositions of the ore are shown in Table 2 indicating 0.70%
Cu, 0.47 g/t Au, 2.87% Fe, 0.33% Zn and 0.86% S. Diagnostic leaching
shows that about 80% Cu is associated with primary copper miner-
als and the rest is associated with secondary copper minerals and
oxides. This ore was referred to as ‘‘clean ore’’ in this study.
Bentonite was purchased from Sibelco Group, Australia.
Quantitative XRD analysis shows that the bentonite sample con-
tains 63 wt.% montmorillonite, 25 wt.% albite and 12 wt.% quartz.
Particle size distribution of the bentonite sample was measured
by a Laser Diffraction Malvern Mastersizer (Malvern Instrument
Ltd., U.K.). The detailed procedure was described elsewhere
(Zhang and Peng, 2015). The particle size distribution of mill
Table 1
Mineral compositions of the clean ore sample analysed by XRD (wt.%).
Quartz Albite Kaolinite Muscovite
27 46 5 11
Table 2
Key elements of the clean ore sample.
Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Iron (%) Zinc (%) Sulphur (%)
0.70 0.47 2.87 0.33 0.86
discharge of the clean ore was measured using both wet/dry
screens from 425 lm to 38 lm. The size distributions of the clay
mineral sample and ground clean ore are shown in Fig. 1. The ben-
tonite sample is very fine with 70% particles smaller than 10 lm,
while the P80 of the ground clean ore is 212 lm.
Sodium isopropyl xanthate (SIPX) and Cytec Aero 3894A (a
thionocarbamate) were used in this study as collectors.
Huntsman polyfroth W22 was used as the frother. Brisbane tap
water and artificial sea water were used in the study in parallel.
The sea water used in this study was the same as used in the spon-
sor’s flotation plant. Its composition is shown in Table 3. The sea
water was prepared by dissolving 35 g API Aquarium Salt pur-
chased from Age of Aquariums, Australia in deionized water to
make up 1 L.
2.2. Mineral grinding and flotation
1 kg crushed clean ore sample was ground in a laboratory stain-
less steel rod mill with stainless steel rods at 50% solids to obtain
80% particles passing 212 lm with the addition of 8 g/t Cytec
3894A. The mill discharge was then transferred to a 3.0 L Agitair
flotation cell.
In order to study the effect of bentonite on copper and gold
flotation in different water, a series of artificial mixtures of the
clean ore and bentonite were prepared. For each test, a calculated
amount of clean ore slurry (0 or 10% of the total solid by weight) in
each case was taken out from the agitating flotation cell and
replaced by the same amount of a well-mixed bentonite suspen-
sion so that the concentration of bentonite in the mixture was
10% while the solid density for all tests was kept constant. The
mixed slurry was then conditioned with SIPX collector (6 g/t) and
frother (15 g/t) before flotation. During flotation, four concentrates
were collected after cumulative times of 1, 3, 7 and 17 min. After
the second concentrate, SIPX collector (4 g/t) and frother (15 g/t)
were added again to the pulp. Flotation was operated at an air flow
rate of 8.0 L/min. The speed of the impeller was kept constant at
800 rpm. Lime was used to control the pH 9.5 at the end of grinding
and during flotation.
2.3. Rheology measurement
Rheology measurements were conducted with an Ares rheome-
ter (TA Instruments Ltd., U.S.) which employs a computation
program so that measurement parameters such as shear stress,
viscosity, and torque are directly calculated. A couette geometry
with a stationary inner cylinder and a rotating outer cylinder
was utilized. All rheology measurements were performed at
ambient temperature around 22 °C.
The rheometer was operated in a strain-controlled mode where
the shear rate was fixed and the required torque was measured.
Each measurement required a sample of 15 ml which was trans-
ferred by a 20 ml syringe from the agitating flotation cell before
the flotation test was conducted. Rheograms were generated in
Chlorite Chalcopyrite Pyrite Carbonates
6 1 2 2
 M. Zhang et al. / Minerals Engineering 77 (2015) 93–98 95

100 the absence of bentonite, the addition of 10% bentonite decreased

copper and gold recoveries from 83.1% and 77.7% to 74% and 72%,
Cumulative Passing (%)

90
80 Bentonite
70
Clean ore
60 float feed
50
40
30
20
10
0 within flotation cells and therefore flotation sub-processes includ-
0.01 0.1 1 10
Size (µm)
Fig. 1. The size distributions of the bentonite sample and ground clean ore.
1 of bentonite on copper and gold flotation. As shown in Fig. 3, cop-
the shearing rate range between 4 and 300 s
complete curves.
2.4. Settling tests
Settling tests were conducted with 3 wt.% suspensions of ben-
tonite using both tap water and sea water in line with the flotation.
Settling tests can provide indirect information on the swelling
property of bentonite suspensions. In this study, the slurry was
transferred to a 500 mL graduated cylinder after adjusting its pH
to 9.5. The cylinder was then stoppered and inverted for 4 times
to ensure the slurry was well mixed. Long-term settling tests were
carried out and the position of the solid–liquid interface was
recorded.
2.5. Cryo-SEM
The Cryo-SEM technique is widely used in many applications to
avoid changes in structure induced by vacuum drying or freeze-
drying since the water is vitrified without crystallisation as ice
(Battersby et al., 1994). Two 6 mm long copper tubes with outer-
diameter 4 mm and inner-diameter 3 mm were joined together
by superglue to hold liquid samples. The samples were piped into
the copper tube using a wide-bore pipette. The copper tube with
the sample inside was sealed with dental wax, placed in a container
and plunged into liquid nitrogen. Each sample was preserved in liq-
uid nitrogen until transferred to the sample preparation chamber of
the PHILIPS XL30 field emission gun scanning electron microscope
(FESEM) equipped with Oxford cryo-transfer and fracture stage. The
top tube of the two glue-jointed tubes was then knocked off by a
metal knife on the fracture stage to expose a fresh sample surface
inside the tube. The sample temperature was raised to 175 K to
sublime vitrified water at the rate of 6 nm/s for 2 min with an
estimated 720 nm depth of vitrified water sublimated. The sample
was eventually coated by platinum plasma for 3 min to form a 3 nm
thick platinum coating to avoid charging during the imaging
respectively, in tap water after the completion of 17 min flotation
(Fig. 2). The depression of copper and gold flotation by bentonite
is due to the increase in the viscosity of flotation pulp, which has
been reported in the previous study (Zhang and Peng, 2015).
Other studies have also indicated that there is a strong relationship
between flotation performance and pulp rheological properties.
Bakker et al. (2009) and Shabalala et al. (2011) found that changes
in rheology of mineral slurries influenced the hydrodynamics
100 1000 ing gas dispersion and particle-bubble attachment as well as the
mobility of particles and mineralised bubbles in the pulp phase.
Whilst in tap water the presence of bentonite was detrimental
to copper and gold flotation, sea water reduced the negative effect
for 100 s to obtain
per and gold recoveries were increased from 74% and 72% when
the ore-bentonite mixture was floated in tap water to 81% and
75% when the same mixture was floated in sea water, respectively.
While in the previous research the depressed flotation by ben-
tonite in tap water was attributed to the increase in the viscosity
of flotation pulp, the improved copper and gold flotation perfor-
mance in the presence of bentonite in sea water may result from
the altered rheological behaviour of bentonite in sea water, which
was studied in the next section.
3.2. Effect of sea water on pulp rheology
To understand the reason for the improved flotation perfor-
mance in the presence of bentonite in sea water, pulp rheology
measurements and bentonite settling tests were conducted.
Fig. 4 shows the rheograms of clean ore slurries in the absence
and presence of bentonite in tap water and sea water. As can be
seen, the clean ore suspension in tap and sea water without
the addition of any bentonite displayed a Newtonian fluid with
the shear stress versus shear rate curve being linear and passing
through the origin. The addition of 10% bentonite, however, caused
the clean ore suspension to behave as a non-Newtonian fluid with
yield stress. The presence of yield stress indicates that complex
structures are formed in the suspensions and the yield value indi-
cates the stability of the network structure against shearing forces.
Whilst there was no obvious difference between the viscosities of
clean ore suspensions in tap water and sea water, the viscosity of
clean ore suspensions in the presence of bentonite was decreased
significantly in sea water throughout the whole measured shear
22
20
Copper
18
Grade (% or ppm)

process. The FESEM was operated at 10 kV voltage. 16

Gold
14
3. Results and discussion 12

3.1. Flotation performance 10

8
Figs. 2 and 3 show the copper and gold flotation results of clean
6
ore with and without the addition of 10% bentonite in tap water
and sea water, respectively. Compared to the baseline flotation in 4
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Table 3 Cumulative Recovery (%)
Chemical compositions of sea water used in this study (mol/L).

Na+ K+ Mg2+ Ca2+ Cl SO24 Fig. 2. Copper and gold grade as a function of copper and gold recovery in the
0.60609 0.00024 0.00002 0.00019 0.60714 0.00023 flotation of clean ore with (solid points) and without (hollow points) the addition of
10% bentonite in tap water.
96 M. Zhang et al. / Minerals Engineering 77 (2015) 93–98

22

20
Copper
18
Grade (% or ppm)

16
Gold
14

12

10

4
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Cumulative Recovery (%)

Fig. 3. Copper and gold grade as a function of copper and gold recovery in the
flotation of clean ore with (solid points) and without (hollow points) the addition of
10% bentonite in sea water.

rates range. For instance, at a shear rate of 100 s 1 which is the

average shear rate value in a flotation cell (Ralston et al., 2007),
clean ore suspension in the presence of bentonite in sea water
required a shear stress about 1.33 times lower than that in tap
water, indicating that the structure of bentonite suspension
formed in sea water was less resistant to shear than that in tap
water. Additionally, the lower yield stress value of clean ore-
bentonite suspension in sea water indicates that the structure
formed in sea water was less stable than that in tap water. As
demonstrated in our previous study (Zhang and Peng, 2015), the
depressed copper and gold flotation in the presence of bentonite
in fresh water was caused by the increase in the viscosity of flota-
tion pulp. For the same reason, the improved flotation performance
in sea water could be attributed to the decrease in pulp viscosity.
Fig. 5 shows the snapshot of sediment of bentonite suspensions
in tap and sea water after 20 min settling. As the main component
of bentonite, montmorillonite layers are held so loosely that water
can penetrate between clay platelets resulting in intercrystalline
and osmotic swelling (Müller-Vonmoos and Løken, 1989). As a
result of the high swelling capacity, the interlayer distance of ben-
tonite can increase to 3–4 nm, accompanied by increased viscosity
(Luckham and Rossi, 1999). Fully swollen bentonite can take up to
10 times its weight and increase its volume by 20 times (Norrish,
1954). As shown in Fig. 5, in tap water after 20 min settling, the
suspension remained the state of gelation without any obvious
solid–liquid interface. The absence of this interface and the high
gel volume indicate that a stable network structure was formed
0.8
0.7 Clean ore
0.6
Shear stress (Pa)
Fig. 5. Snapshot of sediment of bentonite suspensions after 20 min setting in tap
(left) and sea (right) water.
in the suspension. On the other hand, it is known that salt solutions
have the ability to reduce the swelling capacity of bentonite. In
particular, the osmotic swelling which results from the difference
in the ion concentration close to the clay surfaces and in the pore
water is expected to be reduced in sea water. As indicated by the
fast settling of bentonite suspension in sea water in Fig. 5, the
swelling capacity of the bentonite was reduced in sea water.
Meanwhile, the fast settling and low sediment volume in sea water
also suggest that complex structures of bentonite suspension
might be disrupted.
3.3. Association of bentonite platelets in fresh and sea water
In addition to swelling, another potential contributing factor to
the alteration of pulp rheology by sea water is through the aggre-
gation of bentonite particles and the subsequent formation of
network structures. To monitor the association of bentonite plate-
lets in fresh and sea water under the flotation context, Cryo-SEM
study on flotation pulp was carried out.
The Cryo-SEM images of flotation pulp of the clean ore in the
presence of 10% bentonite under different resolutions in tap water
and sea water are shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen, under the same
resolution, while cross-linked network structures of bentonite

Clean ore+Bentonite 10% formed in tap water, the links between the structures in the
0.5 horizontal direction were broken in sea water with relatively loose
0.4 networks. This confirms the results obtained from settling tests
showing fast settling of bentonite suspension in sea water due to
0.3 the breakup of network structures. It is also consistent with rheol-
ogy measurements with network structures formed by clay miner-
0.2
als being less stable under the high shear condition in sea water.
0.1 In sea water, the platelets of bentonite in the flotation pulp
were present in long E–E connected strings and F–F contacts with
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 very thin layers and aggregates, while the E–F contacts were very
few. In contrast, the bentonite platelets in tap water were asso-
Shear rate (s-1)
ciated in the modes of E–E, F–F and E–F, with much denser and
Fig. 4. Rheograms of clean ore slurries in the absence and presence of bentonite in more compact aggregates as shown in Fig. 6. While in tap water
tap (solid points) and sea water (hollow points). the E–E and E–F linkages were responsible for the formation of
 M. Zhang et al. / Minerals Engineering 77 (2015) 93–98
Fig. 6. Cryo-SEM images of flotation pulp of the clean ore in the presence of 10% bentonite under different resolutions (top 4000, bottom 8000) in tap (A and C) and sea (B
and D) water.
voluminous three-dimensional network structures, the formation
of relatively loose structures in sea water was due to the scarcity
of E–F linkages, which resulted from the transition of E–F associa-
tion into F–F association. In the presence of ions and in an alkaline
medium (pH = 9.5 in this current study), both the basal faces and
broken edges of bentonite particles are negatively charged and
they can aggregate in three different modes: edge(-)/edge(-),
edge(-)/face
(-) and face(-)/face(-) (Lagaly, 1989). Increasing ionic strength pro-
duces attractive potential between edges(-) and edges(-) or edges
(-) and faces(-). At higher ionic strength, the potential between
the faces also becomes attractive. The particles then aggregate face
to face in a way that a linked structure throughout the system
results. Such a view is supported by the study of Tombácz and
Szekeres (2004) who suggested that due to an increased ionic
strength, the overlapping of the compressed dominant electric
double layer on the basal surfaces of bentonite probably led to
the F–F oriented aggregates. The sea water used in this study had
a salinity of about 3.5% (ionic strength = 0.6076). Stawinski et al.
(1990) observed that whilst E–F aggregation of bentonite particles
was dominant in distilled water, a high concentration of elec-
trolytes (above 0.1 M for Na+) led to formation of compact F–F
aggregates, in line with this study. A transition from edge
(-)/face(-) to face(-)/face(-) association was also discussed by
Lagaly and Ziesmer (2003) who pointed out that the edge
(-)/face(-) association was determined by the angle between the
two clay particles and the thickness of the particles. The potential
of this association was apparently very small for bentonite parti-
cles in sea water as the layers were very thin (Fig. 6). As mentioned
earlier, F–F aggregates have a denser structure featuring relatively
low viscosity. Hence, it can be concluded that in addition to reduced
swelling capacity, the decrease in viscosity of flotation pulp in sea
water was also related to altered clay particle association and subse-
quent disruption of links between the network structures.
The pore size of the bentonite network in tap water was esti-
mated to be 5 lm from Cryo-SEM micrograph (refer
Fig. 6A and C). Similar to fibrous networks, the actual pore sizes
97
across the network bed of bentonite are expected to be even smal-
ler, as the macro-network is typically in the form of layers of many
small networks (Switzer et al., 2004). Typical bubble size in flota-
tion is 1–2 mm and this is larger than the pore size of the network.
It is therefore unlikely that the bubbles will penetrate readily
through the network or aggregates, which can also apply to the
bubble-particle aggregates. This is in line with the absence of a
normal froth phase which was observed during the flotation tests
of clean ore in the presence of 10% bentonite in tap water. On
the other hand, bentonite networks in sea water were relatively
looser and the observed pore size of the network was larger (refer
Fig. 6B and D), which is beneficial for the movement of bubbles and
bubble-particle aggregates, improving copper and gold flotation
performance.
4. Conclusions
The current study found that sea water mitigated the deleteri-
ous effect of bentonite on copper and gold flotation observed in
fresh water with simultaneous reduction of pulp viscosity. While
cross-linked network structures formed by bentonite platelets
were captured in fresh water, sea water reduced the swelling
capacity of bentonite and also modified the association modes of
bentonite platelets in the pulp, in particular from edge(-)/face(-)
to face(-)/face(-) association, resulting in the breakup of links
between the structures with relatively large pore sizes. The
decreased pulp viscosity together with the enlarged pore sizes in
turn improved bubble and particle mobility with enhanced flota-
tion performance.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of this
study from the Australian Research Council, Newmont Mining
Corporation and Newcrest Mining Limited as well as the discussion
and suggestion from Dr. Ronel Kappes at Newmont Mining
98 M. Zhang et al. / Minerals Engineering 77 (2015) 93–98
Corporation and Dr. David Seaman at Newcrest Mining Limited.
The first author also thanks the scholarship provided by China
Scholarship Council (CSC) and the University of Queensland.
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