Purification of mineral ores using cationic copolymers
AssigneeEcolab USA Inc.
InventorsRyan Travis Chester, Mingli Wei, Rangarani Karnati
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Abstract
Methods of improving the yield and/or purity of a mineral product obtained from a mineral ore comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of combining a cationic copolymer with a mineral ore or a mineral ore process stream to form a treated mineral ore or a treated mineral ore process stream; and processing the treated mineral ore or treated mineral ore process stream to collect a mineral product therefrom. The cationic copolymers are copolymers of N,N-dimethyl-N-propenyl-2-propen-1-aminium chloride (DADMAC).
Claims22
A method of treating a mineral ore process stream, the method comprising adding a cationic copolymer to the mineral ore process stream to form a treated mineral ore process stream, wherein the cationic copolymer comprises one or more repeat units having structure I and one or more repeat units selected from structure II, structure III, structure IV, or any combination thereof:
- wherein n is an integer between 1 and 6, R1 is a polymeric moiety comprising one or more repeat units having structure V,
- R2, R3, and R4 are independently selected from hydrogen, C1-C10 alkyl moieties, and C2-C30 hydroxyalkyl moieties;
- R5 is hydrogen or methyl;
- and R6 is selected from C6-C30 hydrocarbyl, C8-C30 alkaryl or aralkyl, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, or a combination of two or more thereof;
- and
- optionally one or more additional repeat units derived from acrylic acid or a conjugate base thereof, methacrylic acid or a conjugate base thereof, acrylamide, methacrylamide, methylolacrylamide, styrene, allylamine, diallylamine, triallylamine, maleic acid or a conjugate base thereof, or itaconic acid or a conjugate base thereof.
A composition comprising
- a mineral ore, and
- a copolymer comprising one or more repeat units having the structure of formula I, and one or more repeat units having a structure selected from formulae II, III, IV, or any combination thereof:
- wherein n is an integer between 1 and 6, R1 is a polymeric moiety comprising one or more repeat units having the structure of formula V
- R2, R3, and R4 are independently selected from hydrogen, C1-C10 alkyl moieties, and C2-C30 hydroxyalkyl moieties;
- R5 is hydrogen or methyl;
- and R6 is selected from C6-C30 hydrocarbyl, C8-C30 alkaryl or aralkyl, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, or a combination of two or more thereof;
- and
- optionally one or more additional repeat units derived from acrylic acid or a conjugate base thereof, methacrylic acid or a conjugate base thereof, acrylamide, methacrylamide, methylolacrylamide, styrene, allylamine, diallylamine, triallylamine, maleic acid or a conjugate base thereof, or itaconic acid or a conjugate base thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.