Surface properties of enargite in \MAA\ depressant solutions
By Daniel Pineda and Chris Plackowski and Anh V. Nguyen
Published in Minerals Engineering
2015
Abstract
Enargite (Cu3AsS4) is a common penalty mineral in the copper mining industry. Different treatment methods have been proposed to passivate the enargite surface for effective flotation of non-arsenic copper minerals, including pulp potential control, pre-oxidation and chemical depression. Magnesium ammonium mixture (MAA) has been previously tested, showing good selectivity for arsenic rejection. It was hypothesised that \MAA\ would make the enargite surface hydrophilic by adsorption of magnesium ammonium arsenate hexahydrate (MgNH4AsO4