Recovery of Low Grade Barite Ore by Flotation in the Southwest Area of China

Research on beneficiation of a barite ore was conducted according to the properties of the ore. The gravity preconcentration and flotation experiments were carried out. The results showed that direct flotation is the better way to concentrate the valuable mineral without the gravity preconcentration. The flotation results show that a barite concentrate assaying 98.21% BaSO4 can be obtained with the recovery of 80.71%. The agent used in the flotation is water glass as depressant at 500 g/t, sodium oleate as collector at 700 g/t. In the closed circuit, one rougher, three cleanings and one scavenging operations were employed.