Studies on the Beneficiation of Barite

Barite is extensively used as drilling mud in oil exploration operations. Beneficiation of barite by flotation was investigated using cationic and anionic collectors. Commercially available fatty amines such as Armoflote 17 and Liquid B50 were tried as collectors to float gangue minerals (reverse flotation) whereas oleic acid was used for direct flotation of barite. Effect of collector concentration on flotation was studied and the results were discussed. Barite concentrate assaying 96% BaSO4 with less than 1% SiO2 could be obtained by single stage flotation using cationic collectors. Zeta-potential
measurements were conducted to study the interaction of cationic collectors on silica and anionic collector on barite. While cationic collectors were found to adsorb on silica by electrostatic interaction, oleic acid was found to adsorb on barite by chemisorption. Advantage of reverse flotation over direct flotation technique was discussed.