FLOTATION OF SPODUMENE-BERYL ORES

The U . S . Bureau of Mines has been experimenting with flotation processes

to separate the spodumene-beryl o r e s mined at Kings Mountain, N . C . The
success to date a s well a s the present status of the process i s discussed.
Further experimentation i s underway and studies will be made on the milling
c o s t s involved i n the flotation process.

by James S. Browning

he pegmatites of the Kings Mountain-Lincolnton,

clays also contained s m a l l amounts of lithia. This
N.C., a r e a constitute the largest known domestic
i s typical of pegmatites in the Kings Mountain a r e a .
r e s e r v e of beryl and spodumene. The reserve i s e s timated to contain 90 million tons of pegmatic mateLABORATORY TESTS
r i a l with 1,280,000 tons of recoverable Li,O (lithia) as
In the past, a vigorous chemical treatment of the
spodurnene.' The pegmatites also contain 0.4 to 0.5
spodumene
surfaces with acid o r caustic soda has
pct beryl disseminated throughout the orebodies. The
been
considered
essential for satisfactory selective
pegmatites may contain a potential r e s e r v e of 240,flotation
of
the
spodumene
from the other minerals
000 tons beryl, equivalent to approximately 34,000
in pegmatites. Many tests were made during this intons of BeO.
vestigation to determine if chemical treatment of
Different flotation methods for separating beryl
the spodumene could be eliminated in favor of a r e from feldspar o r quartz, o r both, have been develagent combination that would depress the other minoped by various investigators .2-7 On the other hand,
e r a l s while selectively floating the spodumene. A
published information is limited on concentration of
simple
reagent combination and process was develspodumene-beryl ores. A s the response of beryl and
oped
that
gave better spodumene recovery and grade
spodumene to flotation is essentially the same, a
of
concentrate
than the more elaborate acid o r caussuccessful separation of the two minerals depends
tic treatment methods previously used.
upon use of a selective depressant o r a selective
The finely ground o r e pulps were conditioned with
collector for one of the minerals.
either
an ammonium, alkali, o r alkaline earth lignin
Several years ago, the U.S. Bureau of Mines, r e sulfonate
and sodium fluoride, and the spodumene
cognizing the need for developing a large domestic
supply of strategic beryl, undertook studies to devel- was floated and cleaned using oleic acid a s the collector. The spodumene tailing was deslimed, conop improved methods of recovering this mineral.
ditioned
with sulfuric acid and coco amine acetate,
Because of the low beryl content of the pegmatites,
and
floated
to reject mica. The mica tailing was
economic production of the beryl entails its recovthickened and conditioned with hydrofluoric acid,
ery a s a byproduct of spodumene flotation. Thus,
then washed to remove the acid. The washed pulp
the development of procedures that would provide
was conditioned with sodium hydroxide for pH confor maximum recoveries of the spodumene, as well
trol,
and the beryl was floated and cleaned with oleic
as the beryl, was a primary objective of the studies.
Tests were made on run-of-mine o r e and spodumene acid a s the collector. Table I1 summarizes the r e flotation tailing from the Foote Mineral Co.'s spodu- sults of the laboratory test work.
About 77 pct of the spodumene and 75 pct of the
mene concentrator a t Kings Mountain (Fig. 1). Petberyl
were recovered from the pegmatitic material.
rographic analyses of the o r e and flotation tailing
The spodumene concentrate assayed 6.1 pct Li20
a r e given in Table I.
and 0.01 pct BeO, and the beryl product assayed 3.0
Detailed analyses and examinations of the o r e and
pct
Li20 and 1.57 pct BeO. Similar results were obtailings revealed that the beryllium was present in
the form of a low-alkali beryl. The crystals were
small, rarely larger than 14-mesh diam, and were
Table I. Petrographic Analysis of Ore and Flotation
clear and colorless.
Toiling From Foote Mineral Co.
About 10 pct of the L i 2 0 content of the o r e was
Analysis, P c t
-present in the mica and feldspar components of the
Ore
Tailing
Mineral
pegmatite. In some weathered o r e s the associated

J . S. BROWNING i s Supervising Metallurgist, Tuscaloosa

Research Center, Bureau of Mines, U.S. Dept. o f the Interior,
University Station, Ala. TP 61820. St. Louis Meeting, February 1961. Also published i n M I N I N G ENGINEERING, July
1961, pp. 706708. Discussion of this paper, submitted i n duplicate prior to July 1, 1962, w i l l appear in AlME Transactions (Mining), 1962, Vol. 223.

Spodumene
Beryl
Mica
Quartz
Feldspar
Other
Composite

s...

Fig. I-Concentrator at Kings Mountain, N . C . where USBM i s conducting research on flotation of spodumene-beryl ores.
tained in tests of four other pegmatites, two from
other deposits in North Carolina, one from Hill City,
S.D.,and another from Val d'Or, Quebec.
PILOT PLANT TESTS
Spodumene Flotation: The laboratory investigation
was promising enough to warrant further testing of
the spodumene flotation step of the process in a
small continuous flotation pilot plant with a capacity

of about 150 lb of dry feed per hour. The o r e was

crushed to -1/4 in., then wet ground continuously in
a rod mill operating in closed circuit with a rake
classifier to overflow -48-mesh material. The classifier overflow pulp was fed to a hydroseparator to
remove clay and thicken the pulp to 40 to 45 pct solids. The hydroseparator underflow was conditioned
with 2 lb of sodium fluoride and l2 lb of lignin sulfonate per ton of ore. The dischMge from the f i r s t conditioner flowed to a second conditioner, where 0.96

Table II. Laboratory Flotation of Spodumene, Mica, and Beryl

Analysis, P c t

Distribution, P c t

Product

Weight,
Pct

Lip0

Be0

Mica

Lip0

Be0

Mica

Spodumene concentrate
Mica concentrate
Beryl concentrate
Beryl middling
Tailing
Composite

19.2
6.0
2.3
0.9
71.6
100.0

6.1
0.9
3.0
0.6
0.3
1.51

0.01
0.01
1.57
0.28
0.01
0.05

0.4
94.5
2.0
1.0
0.8
6.4

77.4
3.6
4.5
0.3
14.2
100.0

3.9
1.3
74.9
5.2
14.7
100.0

.2
89.0
0.7
0.1
9.0
100.0

Pounds per ton of ore

Spodumene
Conditioner
1st

Lignin sulfonate
Sodium fluoride
Oleic acid
Sulfuric acid
Coco amine acetate
Hydrofluoric acid
Sodium hydroxide
Conditioning time, min
Pulp pH

2nd

Mica
Cleaner

1st

2nd

Conditioner
3rd

1st

2nd

Beryl
Cleaner

1st

Conditioner
1st

2nd

Cleaner
1st

2nd

Plant toiling

7t -

Toble I l l . Summarized Results of o Smoll-Stole

Continuous Spodumene Flotation Test
Analysis, Pct
Product
Spodumene concentrate
Flotation tailing
Hydro-separator
overflow
Composite

Distribution, Pct

Weight,
Pct

Liz0

Be0

Spodumene

20.5
71.9

6.00
0.44

0.01
0.05

83.0
3.0

Hydrofluoric acid

Sond pump

Liz0

Be0

Spodumane

75.5
19.4

5.1
89.2

88.8
11.2

Conditioner

7.6
100.0

1.10 0.03
5.1
5.7
- trace
- -

Spiral classifier

1.62

0.04

19.1

100.0

100.0

100. 0

Sodium silicate

lb of oleic acid per ton of o r e was added as the spodumene collector. The pulp then was floated to recover a spodumene concentrate. The tailing from
the rougher cells flowed to a single cell, operated
as a scavenger, to remove additional spodumene
from the floating tailing. The froth from this unit
was recycled through the last rougher cell. The
rougher concentrate flowed to a bank of flotation
cells for three-stage cleaning. Results of the continuous test a r e summarized in Table 111.
The cleaner concentrate assayed 6.0 pct LizO and
accounted for a Liz recovery of 75.5 pct. The concentrate contained 83 pct spodumene by petrographic
analysis, representing a spodumene recovery of 88.8
pct. About 11 pct of the lithia in the o r e was not
present as spodumene but was associated with the
mica, feldspar, and clay.
Beryl Flotation: Small-scale continuous tests were
also made to substantiate the laboratory test results
obtained on beryl flotation. Rather than treat the
crude o r e to remove the spodumene before the beryl
flotation, tests were made of spodumene tailings being produced at Foote Co.'s spodumene concentrator.
As the plant tailing contained unrecovered spodumene, the purpose of the tests was to recover the
beryl and spodumene together as a bulk concentrate
that could be re-treated to produce enriched beryl
and spodumene products. This method was attractive
because it would enable recovery of additional spodumene from the pegmatite to pay part of the re-treatment cost.
A part of the concentrator tailing, containing about
150 lb of dry feed per hour, was diverted to the pilot
plant. The pulp was conditioned with 2 lb of hydrofluoric acid per ton of dry feed for 5 min at a pH of
3.8. The conditioned pulp was then washed in a spiral
classifier to give a sand product for flotation and remove the acid from the pulp. The washed sands were
admixed with water to produce a pulp containing
about 30 pct solids in the slurry; and then they were
conditioned with 0.9 lb of sodium silicate, 0.3 lb of
sodium hydroxide, and 0.9 lb of oleic acid per ton of
dry solids. The pH of the pulp was 7.3.
The pulp was floated to produce a rougher concentrate which was then triple-cleaned. The middling
product was returned countercurrently to the rougher
cells. The beryl concentrate assayed 1.25 pct B e 0
and 4.45 pct LizO; about 87 pct of the beryllium and
66 pct of the lithia was recovered. The bulk concentrate also contained about 12.5 pct mica, 10.5 pct
feldspar, and 5.5 pct quartz. A simplified flowsheet

F-r

Conditioner

Sodium hydroxide
Oleic acid

-1

Overflow to waste

r
I

Flototion cells

LTailing

I-stage scavenging

Flotation cells
3-stage cleaning

Beryl-spodumene concentrate

Fig. 2-Flowsheet f o r USBM process to recover

beryl-spodumene concentrates.
for recovery of the bulk beryl-spodumene concentrate is shown in Fig. 2.
Batch Treatment: Because of the difficulty of producing enough bulk spodumene-beryl concentrate
from the low-grade tailings for further continuous
cleaning tests, the recovery of enriched beryl and
spodumene products was carried out by batch retreatment consisting of three stages, as follows: 1)
rejection of the mica, 2) flotation of the spodumene ,
and 3) flotation of the beryl.
The bulk beryl-spodumene concentrate was conditioned with 10 lb of sulfuric acid per ton of dry
feed to remove the fatty acid collector from the
mineral surfaces. After washing the pulp to remove
Toble IV. Flotation of Mica, Spodumene, and
Beryl From Bulk Concentrate
Analysis, Pct
Product

Weight,
Pct

Mica concentrate 13.1

Spodumene concentrate
55.7
Beryl concentrate 13.2
Tailing
18.0

Composite

100.0

Distribdtion, Pct

Liz0

Be0

Mica

Li10

Be0

Mica

1.89

0.28

94.5

5.6

3.3

94.2

6.60 0.33
0.5 83.6
16.7
2.0
2.57 6.37
2.4
7.7
76.1
2.4
0.76 0.24 1.0 3.1 3.91.4
4.40 1.10 13.1 100.0 100.0 100.0

the fatty acid, it was conditioned with 2 lb of sulfuric acid and 0.2 lb of coco amine acetate, then
floated to reject the mica. The mica concentrate
contained about 94 pct mica. Quartz, spodumene,
and beryl, in the order named, were the principal
contaminants in the mica concentrate.
The mica tailings were conditioned with 1.5 lb of
magnesium lignin sulfonate, 1.5 lb of sodium fluoride,
and 0.8 lb of oleic acid per ton of feed. The spodumene was then floated and cleaned twice. The concentrate assayed 6.6 pct LizO and represented an
overall recovery of 84 pct of the lithia in bulk concentrate. About 80 pct of the beryl was retarded in
the tailings.
The spodumene tailings and middlings were combined and conditioned with 2 lb of hydrofluoric acid
per ton of bulk concentrate. Then the acid was
washed from the pulp, and the product was conditioned with 0.3 lb of sodium hydroxide and 0.48 lb of
oleic acid per ton of feed. A beryl rougher concentrate was floated a t a pHof about 7 and cleaned twice.
The resulting concentrate contained 6.37 pct Be0
and 2.57 pct LizO, accounting for a beryl recovery

of 76 pct. The overall recovery of beryllium from

the spodumene plant tailings was about 66 pct. The
results of the tests of the bulk concentrate a r e summarized in Table IV.
The USBM has built a 2-tph pilot plant at Kings
Mountain and is continuing its program on beryl r e covery. Final results and milling cost studies will
be available when these tests end.
REFERENCES
'J. J . Norton and D.M. Schlegel: Lithium Resources of North America,
G e o l . Survey Bull. 1027-G, 1955, pp. 325-350.
'J. S. Kennedy and R. G. O'Meara: Flotatian of Beryllium Ores,
Bureau of Mines R e p t . of Investigations 4166, 1948, 18 pp.
'F. D. Lamb: Beneficiation of New England Beryllium Ores, Bureau
of Mines Rept. of l n v e s t i g a t i o n s 4040, 1947, 9 pp.
'H. D. Sneddon and H. L . Gibbs: Beneficiation of Western Beryl
Ores, Bureau of Mines Rept. of l n v e s t i g a t i o n s 4071, 1947, 18 pp.
'S. M. Runke, D. H. Mullen, and J . B. Cunningham: Progress Report
on Pegmatite Investigations in South Dakota for Fiscal Year Ended
June 30, 1951, Bureau of Mines Rept. of Investigations 4928, 1952,
46 PP.
'S. M. Runke and J. M. Riley: Progress Report on P e m a t i t e Investigations in South Dakota for Fiscal Years 1954-56, Bureau of Mines
R e t . o Investigations 5339, 1957, 18 pp.
Mf Runke: Petroleum Solfonate Flotation of Beryl. Bureau of
Mines R e p t . of l n v e s t i g a t i o n s 5067, 1954, 19 pp.

4.