Beneficiation of phosphate ore

摘要

A method is disclosed for beneficiating an apatitic phosphate ore containing an alkaline earth metal carbonate mineral impurity, which includes conditioning the phosphate ore in an aqueous conditioning slurry containing a cationic reagent at a concentration sufficient to reagentize the ore; and subjecting the reagentized ore to a froth flotation process wherein the apatite is recovered in the froth concentrate and the alkaline earth metal carbonate mineral impurity is rejected in the underflow tailing.