Reagents in zinc recovery from Pb- flotation tailings of

Effect of concentration parameters on recovery of zinc oxidized minerals from lead flotation tailings of Dandy mineral processing plant in north-western Iran was studied. A sulfidization-flotation method has been used on a laboratory scale to investigate the effect of various reagents such as sodium sulfide as sulfidizing agent, primary amine as collector, dispersants and flocculants with different concentrations to reach an optimum zinc recovery. Among the dispersants tested, hexametaphosphate gave a higher zinc grade 40.4% and 70% recovery. Usually de-sliming is used to increase the recovery of zinc, however, analyses have shown that fine particles in the sample mostly contain zinc, thus de-sliming is not suggested.