Separation of Tungsten and Molybdenum in Tungsten Concentrate

Tungsten and molybdenum are accompanying elements in tungsten mine. However, in tungsten concentrate beneficiation, its hard to separate them because they are similar element, both belong to VIB clan in periodic table of elements. It results in over 41% of tungsten resource are wasted due to its high molybdenum content. This greatly shortens service life of tungsten resource in China.

With development of tungsten carbide, electronic and national defense industry, requirement for molybdenum is stricter. Tungsten or molybdenum with high purity is required in the market. With constant consuming of high quality tungsten concentrate, molybdenum content is increasing. It is even harder to separate tungsten and molybdenum. So develop effective tungsten and molybdenum separation method is imperative.

Tungsten and molybdenum are both important metal. For a long time, scholars in and abroad have spent days and nights to separate them so they can perform their duties. But it didn’t take much effect. Until recent years, they finally found molybdenum has better affinity for sulfur in water than tungsten. So extraction method, precipitation method and ion exchange method are developed.

These methods focus on the different affinity for sulfur of tungsten and molybdenum. In tungsten concentrate gravity separation or tungsten scheelite flotation process, it is called sulphide flotation treatment. It happens in the later stage of concentrate selection or previous stage of scheelite flotation. These methods are not all perfect, regarding economic efficiency or environmental friendly, they needs to be promoted further.

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