Experimental study on comprehensive recovery of tungsten from flotation tailings

The content of WO₃ in flotation tailings of a mine is 0.130%, which has comprehensive recovery value. There are many mineral components in the tailings, among which tungsten minerals are mainly wolframite, a small amount of scheelite and wolframite, and other metal minerals are mainly pyrite, and a small amount of sphalerite, galena, limonite, siderite and magnetite. The main gangue is quartz, followed by andradite, with a small amount of calcite, illite and potash feldspar. In the distribution of tungsten metal in each particle size, the proportion of micro and finegrained tungsten is high, and the micro and finegrained tungsten cannot be removed, which will seriously affect the recovery effect of tungsten. The flotation and gravity separation schemes are studied in this experiment, and good results are obtained. Using the flotation scheme, the total tungsten concentrate with a yield of 1.32%, WO₃ grade of 2.94% and recovery of 29.68% is obtained by open circuit test. The tungsten concentrate with an operating yield of 3.18%, operating recovery of 66.71% and WO₃ grade of 61.15% are obtained through three open-circuit heating cleaning tests, and the tungsten concentrate with yield of 0.06%, WO₃ grade of 60.62% and recovery rate of 34.82% are obtained by closed-circuit test in the whole process. Using the gravity separation scheme, the total tungsten concentrate with a yield of 0.24%, WO₃ grade of 19.53% and recovery rate of 36.65% are obtained in the whole process test, in which the WO₃ grade of tungsten concentrate with yield of about 0.01% reached 66.58%. Due to the flotation process is complex, the reagent cost is high, and backwater residual reagent has a serious impact on the main flotation process and the environment, in order to achieve the effect of high efficiency, low cost and environmental friendliness, the principle scheme of gravity separation is finally recommended.