Tungsten Beneficiation Desulfurizing Agent – Xanthate

Industrial xanthate is not yellow medicine in herb, it is also called yellow catching agent due to its yellow appearance. It is the most widely applied desulfurizing agent in tungsten beneficiation process. Its main function is to catch sulfur minerals in tungsten ore and separate them.

Xanthate is used in the initial process of tungsten ore beneficiation. For tungsten ore containing sulfide, xanthate is used for flotation to catch floated sulfurizing minerals such as lead minerals, chalcopyrite, blende and pyrite to promote separation and purification effect of subsequent tungsten ore flotation.

Xanthate has different types, including sodium ethylxanthate, sodium n-butylxanthate, pentyl xanthate. Xanthate molecular structure has intimate relation with flotation property. Generally speaking, the longer the carbon chain in xanthate molecular is, the better its catching ability will be. So carbon atom quantity is used to distinguish xanthate grade. In hydrocarbyl, if carbon atom quantity is less than 4, then it is called low grade xanthate. If carbon atom quantity is more than 4, it is called high grade xanthate. Xanthate of high grade has better catching ability than low grade one.

Apart from that, xanthate has no catching ability for alkaline earth metal minerals such as fluorite, calcite, apatite, barite and so on. Therefore, xanthate is for primary filtration in tungsten scheelite flotation. 

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