Carbon Inhibitor (flotation depressant):

It is mainly used in the case of non-ferrous metal ore containing carbon, fine-grained graphite and cryptocrystalline graphite. It can effectively restrain the carbon bearing minerals into the tailings, avoid the adverse interference to the flotation, and improve the concentrate grade and recovery. Usage: prepare 2% concentration solution, add it as inhibitor to flotation process, and the dosage is 100-500g/ton.

Case:

(1) In a copper mine in Sichuan, the grade of raw copper is 0.8% and the carbon content is 6%. By adding the inhibitor 400 g/T, the grade of copper concentrate is increased from 17% to 22%, and the recovery rate is increased from 85% to 91%, which greatly improves the profitability;

(2) In a gold mine, the raw ore contains about 2.8 g/T of gold and 3% of carbon. By adding 250 g/T of the inhibitor, the grade of gold concentrate is increased from 20 g/T to 45 g/T, the gold flotation speed is greatly improved, and the flotation process is reduced from five sweeps to three sweeps, which effectively reduces the power cost and has obvious economic benefits.

Metal ores contain more carbon or aphanitic graphite, so this inhibitor can also be used.