Phosphoric rock beneficiation in the municipalities of Nuevo Colón, Turmequé and Ventaquemada (Boyacá)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32685/0120-1425/bolgeol34.1.1994.398Keywords:
Colombia, resources, phosphate level, Plaeners Formation, Piranchón syncline
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Copyright (c) 1994 Servicio Geológico Colombiano
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Abstract
This report emphasises the need to take advantage of phosphate rock resources in the country. Therefore, using phosphate rock samples taken in the Turmequé-Ventaquemada area in the department of Boyacá from the main phosphate level of the Plaeners formation, Piranchón syncline, a mineral concentration study was carried out using the flotation process. In this way, concentrates of 32% in P205 were obtained starting from a mineral with a content of 18.7%. In this study, a variation of each of the parameters involved in the flotation process such as sliding time, sliding pH, the concentration of the depressant reagent (sodium silicate), the concentration of the collector reagent (oleic acid), level of the frother (pine oil), pH of the flotation, the recovery of phosphorus, and cleaning flotations.
The procedure consisted of varying one parameter in the different tests leaving the others fixed, based on the best result in terms of the increase of P205 and its recovery in the concentrate, and the best value was selected. It is used in the subsequent tests. The same is done with each of the parameters studied until the optimum values of each is found resulting in a concentrate of 32% in P205 with a recovery of eighty-five percent. Tests are carried out on a pilot scale using the optimum values of the variables involved in the flotation process, in a cell with a capacity of fifty kilograms, thus proving that the study results on a laboratory scale are valid on an industrial scale.
An economic study of the process is also made based on the costs of exploitation, drying, milling, and concentration process per ton, relating it to the current market price of phosphate rock in the country.
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