Effect of Water Quality on Formation of Hydrogen Peroxide and Its Behavior on Flotation

Water is one of the important parameters in flotation and represents 80–85% of the volume of mineral pulp processed in flotation circuits. In our recent studies revealed was found that sulphide minerals generated H2O2 in pulp liquid during wet grinding and also the solids when placed in water immediately after dry grinding but the effect of type of water on the oxidation of pulp components and hence in deteriorating the concentrate grade and recovery in flotation has not been explored yet. In this study, the effect of two types of water on the formation of H2O2 as an oxidizing agent stronger than oxygen was investigated. process water is water that is used for a flotation process in Bama Company. It was shown that process water generated 482 μM H2O2 but deionized water generated 16 μM. The result shows the recovery of chalcopyrite in pH 6 is 60% and 40% in process water and deionized water respectively. Also, recovery of galena in pH 6 is 30% and 20% in process water and deionized water respectively.