INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF FLOCCULANTS ON THE STABILITY OF SUSPENSIONS LATERITE

Abstract

This research has investigated about the effects of the dosage added and the features of different synthetic organic flocculants over the stability of the suspensions of laterite, which were made with distilled water and a sample of the mineral fed to the pressured acid leaching proocess (PAL) utilized in Moa. In the test for stability the potentiometric technique for rapid evaluation was used in order to define the value of the point of zero charge (p.z.c) of the suspension, after adding ionic
and non ionic flocculants individually. When using cationic flocculant 920 VHR of the brand SNF it was confirmed that the p.z.c tends to change to more acid pH as the dosage is increased. With a dose of 60 g/ton of each of the flocculants selected for this research, a number of curves of stability
were obtained that show the variation of the p.z.c value of the suspension when ionic flocculants are added; however, with the other non ionic flocculants, p.z.c values obtained are similar to those of the slurry in natural state. The analysis of the effectiveness of two types of flocculants more frequently used in the process demonstrated that both appear to have very similar effectiveness for suspensions of laterite.