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US 5,358,120 AGranted
Selective separation of finely-divided minerals by addition of selective collector reagent and centrifugation
AssigneeEngelhard Corporation
InventorsGeorge E. Gantt, Thomas J. Adkisson, Preston B. Gladin, Randall E. Ussery, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Separation of impurities from kaolin clay is accomplished by conditioning a dispersed aqueous pulp of the clay with an anionic flotation collector, followed by centrifugation or the like to cause the impurities to settle from a dispersed pulp of the clay without an intermediate froth flotation step or a flotation waste froth is centrifuged or hydrocloned to recover valuable kaolin contained in the froth.
Claims5
A method for purifying kaolin clay which consists essentially of the steps of:
- (a) providing degritted impure kaolin clay containing particles of a colored iron-contaminated titania impurity, said degritted impure kaolin clay being in the form of a fluid dispersed alkaline aqueous pulp and the dispersant being selected from the group consisting of alum-silica hydrosol, sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, sodium polyacrylate and mixtures thereof, said pulp being free from a phosphate dispersant;
- (b) conditioning said pulp from step (a) by agitating it in a squirrel cage mixer with calcium chloride and an anionic collector reagent comprising oleic acid capable of selectively collector-coating said iron-contaminated titania impurity;
- (c) subjecting the entirety of the conditioned pulp from step (b) to centrifugation or hydrocloning to sediment selectively collector-coated iron-contaminated impurity;
- and
- (d) separating said sediment from the remainder of the pulp which is a dispersed concentrate of purified kaolin.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.