Increasing Iron and Reducing Phosphorus Grades of Magnetic-Roasted High-Phosphorus Oolitic Iron Ore by Low-Intensity Magnetic Separation–Reverse Flotation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The presented research seems to be of interest, but English translation has serious mistakes and some parts are simply unreadable. The article needs a deep language revision before further evaluation.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: The presented research seems to be of interest, but English translation has serious mistakes and some parts are simply unreadable. The article needs a deep language revision before further evaluation.
Response 1: Thanks for your precious suggestions. We have made a comprehensive revision of the language of the paper, and revised the experimental results in the paper. Sincerely hope you can see our efforts. In the meantime, I hope you can give me your valuable suggestions again.
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer comments:
The paper reports on a set of laboratory experiments for the study of “Study on Iron Increase and Phosphorous Reduction of Suspended Flash Magnetic Roasted High-Phosphorus Oolitic Iron Ore by LIMS-Reverse Flotation”
It is an interesting work, evaluates the potential of reverse flotation as an alternative to float gangue minerals, mainly apatite, in an iron ore of magnetite. However, it can only be accepted with major changes
I have listed some comments below.
Should have numbered the lines. It would make recommendations easier.
Page 1 abstract
By using the magnetic flotation technology combined by the low intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) and reverse flotation
magnetic flotation separation?
Abstract:
chlorite, quartz, mica and so on.
must be.
chlorite, quartz and mica.
technology combined by the low intensity
must be
technology combined with the low intensity
“The results show that at the LIMS conditions at a grinding fineness of <0.038 mm (occupying 95%), a magnetic field H of 0.10T, and at the roughing reverse flotation conditions at a pulp pH value of 9, an ST dosage of 800g/ t, an starch dosage of 1000 g/t, a pine alcohol oil dosage of 40g/t, and at the scavenging reverse flotation conditions at a pulp pH value of 9, an ST dosage of 400 g/t, an starch dosage of 500 g/t, a pine oil dosage of 20 g/t, ideal iron ore concentrate indexes ( iron grade of 67.54%, phosphorus content of 0.11% and iron recovery rate of 78.99%) were obtained.”
Too long paragraph. It was preferable to start this way:
The results show that ideal iron ore concentration indexes were obtained at ….
“Mechanism of phosphorus reduction affected result shows that under the collector ST system, after the action of starch, the collector ST can be adsorbed on the surface of quartz, but after the action of starch, the adsorption of collector ST on the surface of quartz is significantly weakened, which further indicates that the starch, as an inhibitor, has a negative effect on the adsorption of quartz, but a positive effect on that of phosphorus mineral.”
Improved this paragraph
("an" should be replaced by "a")
Are these conclusions based on flotation results? Know the quartz recovery in flotation tests.
You should complete the abstract with a final paragraph of conclusions.
Page 1
The reference in text is not consistent:
temperature and weakly reducing atmosphere [HAO, Y.L., et al. 2018; Guo, L., et al. 2019; Zhang, H.Q., et al. 2019]
must be
temperature and weakly reducing atmosphere [1-3]
In Table 2 present the iron phase analysis results of sample (%). How did you determine those values? by XRD?
You should improve formatting of table 2 (column width)
Page 3
3.1. LIMS Test on Iron Increase
What is the particle size? What is the grain size distribution of the material after milling?
The particle size affects the performance of the flotation.
Page 3
3.2. Reverse Flotation Test on Phosphorus Reduction
“The weight of the iron concentrate was 500 g”
Must be?
feed weight? (weight of material used in each flotation test?)
“an inhibition and a collector were added and stirred for 3 min successively.”
What were the inhibitor and collector used?
Page 4
and the grinding fineness of < 0.1mm (occupying 95%),
must be?
and the grinding fineness of < 0.154mm (occupying 95%), (Figure 2 shows 0.154)
Page 4
3.1. LIMS Test on Iron Increase
3.1.1. Effects of Grinding Fineness
Must be
4.1. LIMS Test on Iron Increase
4.1.1. Effects of Grinding Fineness
Change numbering of all sub-chapters.
Page 4
“Figure 2 - Effects of grinding fineness on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous”
Improve legend of Figure 2
Maybe it should be
Effect of particles size on performance of the low intensity magnetic separation
Page 4
“It is known from Table 3 that the grinding fineness is an important index to reflect the degree of dissociation of single minerals in materials separation”
This paragraph must be improved (Table 3?)
“iron content of 65.68%, phosphorus content of 0.68% and iron recovery rate of 85.01%.”
and shows a phosphorus recovery of about 60%”
“…phosphorus content of 0.68%”…. Correct value? confirm value.
3.2.1. Effects of Kinds of Collector
What is the function of starch and pine oil? (collector or inhibitor and frother?)
page 5
“a pine oil dosage of 4g/t. The results are shown in Figure 4.”
The dosage of pine oil is 4g/t or 40g/t.?
“Figure 3 - Effects of magnetic field intensity on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous”
Improve legend of Figure 3
For example
Figure 3 - Effects of magnetic field intensity on performance of the magnetic separation
Page 6
Figure 4. Effects of kinds of collector on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous.
Improve legend of Figure 4
For example
Figure 4 - Effects of kinds of collector on performance of the flotation separation
In figures 2 and 4 presents the results in the form of mass fraction, but in the other figures in the form of recovery and grade. Why?
Page 6
“A test was carried out at the conditions at a sodium carbonate adjusted pulp pH value of 8, an starch dosage of 800g/ t, a pine alcohol oil dosage of 40g/ t. The results are shown in Figure 5.”
The dosage of pine oil is 40g/t or 4g/t.?
Page 7
Figure 5. Effects of dosage of ST on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous.
Improve legend of Figure 5
Page 7
“From Figure 5, it can be found that due to the increased dosage of ST collector, the iron grade of iron concentrate increased regularly, along with the initial increase and subsequent decrease in iron recovery, as well as the regular decrease in phosphorus content”
The effect of the variation of ST concentration on recovery and iron grade is very small, its effect is only significant on recovery and phosphorus grade.
“However, excessive collector dosage will lead to unsatisfactory effect on decreasing phosphorus.”
Has this behavior been observed?
“Thus, the dosage of collector ST of 800 g/t is considered as an ideal parameter, to obtain the following phosphorous reduction indexes of iron ore concentrate: iron grade of 66.63%, phosphorus content of 0.32% and iron operation recovery rate of 90.02%.”
But the ST collector dosage of 600 g/t led to similar results: Iron grade of 66.57%; iron recovery of 90.01%, phosphorus grade of 0.36%.
Page 8
“Figure 6. Effects of dosage of Starch on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous”
Improve legend of Figure 6
“It is known from Figure 6 that increased dosage of starch is conducive to reducing the iron content of the froth product, thereby reducing the loss rate of iron. When the dosage of starch was increased to 1000g/ t, the grade of iron concentrate was increased to 67.05%, the phosphorus content was reduced to 0.25%, the recovery of iron operation was 90.01%; while the dosage of starch was 1200g/t, the iron grade of iron concentrate was reduced to 66.75%, the phosphorus content was reduced to 0.24%, and the iron recovery was 87.99%. This further indicates that due to the excessive dosage of starch, starch also has a certain flocculation effect in addition to its inhibition of magnetite, and without the utilization of the action of phosphorus-containing minerals and collector ST, it adversely affects the quality of iron concentrate products.”
The effect of starch dosage on the iron content was minimal, only a significant decrease in the phosphorus recovery was observed.
Page 9
Figure 7. Effects pH value of pulp on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous.
Improve legend of Figure 7
“It is known from Figure 7 that as the pH value of the pulp increased, the grade of the iron concentrate increased first and then decreased,….”
it is not evident that the iron grade decreases with increasing pH.
“During the flotation process, the pH value is too high, and the viscosity of the pulp increased, which is not conducive to the adhesion of minerals to the froth, and thus affect the separation of phosphorus minerals and magnetite [Zhu, D.Q., et al. 2016].”
In the present work this behavior is not very evident, for pH of 9 and 10 the results are similar.
Page 10
“It is known from the data in Table 2 that the one-roughing…”
Must be? Table 3?.
“It is known from the data in Table 2 that the one-roughing and one-scavenging reverse flotation on decreasing phosphorus for LIMS concentrate can reduce the content of harmful elemental phosphorus to less than 0.20%. “
This paragraph must be improved
Page 11
Table 4. Main chemical…
must be
Table 5. Main chemical…
Page 11
“It is known from Tables 5 and 6 that for”
must be
It is known from Tables 4 and 5 that for
Page 17
In the conclusions chapter, you present in detail the surface characteristics of quartz before and after the action of the flotation agent. However throughout the work only analyzed the recovery and the content in phosphorus (Apatite ??)
Conclusions must be improved
The reference style is not consistent.
Example:
[26] Yu, W., Tang, Q.Y., Chen, J.A., Sun, T.C., 2016. Thermodynamic analysis of the carbothermic reduction of a high-phosphorus oolitic iron ore by FactSage. International Journal of Minerals Metallurgy and Materials.23(10):1126. DOI: 10.1007/s12613-016-1331-z.
Must be
[26] Yu W.; Tang Q.Y.; Chen J.A.; Sun T.C. Thermodynamic analysis of the carbothermic reduction of a high-phosphorus oolitic iron ore by FactSage. Int J Min Meter Mater 2016, 23(10), 1126. DOI: 10.1007/s12613-016-1331-z.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: Should have numbered the lines. It would make recommendations easier.
Response 1: Thanks for your precious suggestions, please refer to the literature review section for specific modifications.
Point 2: Page 1 abstract. By using the magnetic flotation technology combined by the low intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) and reverse flotation magnetic flotation separation?
Response 2: Thanks for your precious suggestions. Yes, the combined process of magnetic separation and flotation is adopted. The main function of magnetic separation is to lift iron and the main function of flotation is to reduce phosphorus.
Point 3: Abstract: chlorite, quartz, mica and so on. must be. chlorite, quartz and mica. technology combined by the low intensity must be technology combined with the low intensity
Response 3: In the process of low intensity magnetic separation, some gangue minerals are mechanically entrained in magnetic concentrate.
Point 4: “The results show that at the LIMS conditions at a grinding fineness of <0.038 mm (occupying 95%), a magnetic field H of 0.10T, and at the roughing reverse flotation conditions at a pulp pH value of 9, an ST dosage of 800g/ t, an starch dosage of 1000 g/t, a pine alcohol oil dosage of 40g/t, and at the scavenging reverse flotation conditions at a pulp pH value of 9, an ST dosage of 400 g/t, an starch dosage of 500 g/t, a pine oil dosage of 20 g/t, ideal iron ore concentrate indexes ( iron grade of 67.54%, phosphorus content of 0.11% and iron recovery rate of 78.99%) were obtained.” Too long paragraph. It was preferable to start this way: The results show that ideal iron ore concentration indexes were obtained at …. “Mechanism of phosphorus reduction affected result shows that under the collector ST system, after the action of starch, the collector ST can be adsorbed on the surface of quartz, but after the action of starch, the adsorption of collector ST on the surface of quartz is significantly weakened, which further indicates that the starch, as an inhibitor, has a negative effect on the adsorption of quartz, but a positive effect on that of phosphorus mineral.” Improved this paragraph ("an" should be replaced by "a") Are these conclusions based on flotation results? Know the quartz recovery in flotation tests. You should complete the abstract with a final paragraph of conclusions.
Response 4: Thank you very much for your Suggestions, and make a lot of changes to the abstract, as detailed in the article.
Point 5: Page 1 The reference in text is not consistent: temperature and weakly reducing atmosphere [HAO, Y.L., et al. 2018; Guo, L., et al. 2019; Zhang, H.Q., et al. 2019] must be temperature and weakly reducing atmosphere [1-3] In Table 2 present the iron phase analysis results of sample (%). How did you determine those values? by XRD?
Response 4：Thank you for your comments. The references have been properly referenced and marked in corresponding places. The results of iron phase analysis in table 2 are detected by the combination of XRF semi-quantitative analysis and XRD quantitative analysis.
Point 6: You should improve formatting of table 2 (column width)
Response 6: Thank you. Corresponding adjustments have been made in the article.
Point 7: Page 3. 3.1. LIMS Test on Iron Increase. What is the particle size? What is the grain size distribution of the material after milling? The particle size affects the performance of the flotation.
Response 7: The particle sizes of suspended roasting are all less than 1mm. After grinding, magnetic products after low intensity magnetic separation are used to reduce phosphorus in the flotation process. The particle size of suspended roasting ore mainly affects the grinding conditions before magnetic separation including grinding time and grinding concentration.
Point 8: Page 3 3.2. Reverse Flotation Test on Phosphorus Reduction“The weight of the iron concentrate was 500 g” Must be? feed weight? (weight of material used in each flotation test?) “an inhibition and a collector were added and stirred for 3 min successively.”What were the inhibitor and collector used?
Response 8: Yes, the amount of ore per test is 500g.Starch was used as an inhibitor in reverse flotation to inhibit iron ore and enhance its hydrophobicity. ST is the collector of phosphate minerals. Add each agent and stir for three minutes before adding another flotation agent.
Point 9: Page 4 and the grinding fineness of < 0.1mm (occupying 95%), must be? and the grinding fineness of < 0.154mm (occupying 95%), (Figure 2 shows 0.154)
Response 9: After checking the test records, the < 0.1mm in the paper should be < 0.154mm, which has been revised in the paper.
Point 10: Page 4 3.1. LIMS Test on Iron Increase, 3.1.1. Effects of Grinding Fineness Must be 4.1. LIMS Test on Iron Increase 4.1.1. Effects of Grinding Fineness Change numbering of all sub-chapters.
Response 10: The article has been modified, please check.
Point 11: Page 4 “Figure 2 - Effects of grinding fineness on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous” Improve legend of Figure 2 Maybe it should be Effect of particles size on performance of the low intensity magnetic separation
Response 11: Thank you very much for your suggestion. It has been modified. Please review it.
Point 12: Page 4 “It is known from Table 3 that the grinding fineness is an important index to reflect the degree of dissociation of single minerals in materials separation” This paragraph must be improved (Table 3?)
Response 12: Thank you for your advice. I have revised the article.
Point 13: “iron content of 65.68%, phosphorus content of 0.68% and iron recovery rate of 85.01%.” and shows a phosphorus recovery of about 60%” “…phosphorus content of 0.68%”…. Correct value? Confirm value.
Response 13: It has been verified that the phosphorus recovery rate of 60.62% and the experimental data is accurate.
Point 14: 3.2.1. Effects of Kinds of Collector What is the function of starch and pine oil? (collector or inhibitor and frother?)
Response 14: Starch inhibits iron ore and enhances hydrophobicity of iron ore surface. Pine ole oil is used as foaming agent to improve the viscosity, size and stability of foams.
Point 15: page 5 “a pine oil dosage of 4g/t. The results are shown in Figure 4.” The dosage of pine oil is 4g/t or 40g/t.? “Figure 3 - Effects of magnetic field intensity on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous” Improve legend of Figure 3 For example. Figure 3 - Effects of magnetic field intensity on performance of the magnetic separation\
Response 15: The writing error should be 40g/t. Figure 3 has been modified. Thanks again for your advice.
Point 16: Page 6 Figure 4. Effects of kinds of collector on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous. Improve legend of Figure 4. For example Figure 4 - Effects of kinds of collector on performance of the flotation separation. In figures 2 and 4 presents the results in the form of mass fraction, but in the other figures in the form of recovery and grade. Why?
Response 16: Because of Writing leading to the errors. The mass fraction has been changed into grade in the article.
Point 17: Page 6 “A test was carried out at the conditions at a sodium carbonate adjusted pulp pH value of 8, an starch dosage of 800g/ t, a pine alcohol oil dosage of 40g/ t. The results are shown in Figure 5.” The dosage of pine oil is 40g/t or 4g/t.?
Response 17: In the process of reverse flotation, the dosage of pine oil is 40g/t.
Point 18: Page 7 Figure 5. Effects of dosage of ST on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous. Improve legend of Figure 5. Page 7 “From Figure 5, it can be found that due to the increased dosage of ST collector, the iron grade of iron concentrate increased regularly, along with the initial increase and subsequent decrease in iron recovery, as well as the regular decrease in phosphorus content”. The effect of the variation of ST concentration on recovery and iron grade is very small, its effect is only significant on recovery and phosphorus grade.
“However, excessive collector dosage will lead to unsatisfactory effect on decreasing phosphorus.” Has this behavior been observed?
“Thus, the dosage of collector ST of 800 g/t is considered as an ideal parameter, to obtain the following phosphorous reduction indexes of iron ore concentrate: iron grade of 66.63%, phosphorus content of 0.32% and iron operation recovery rate of 90.02%.”
But the ST collector dosage of 600 g/t led to similar results: Iron grade of 66.57%; iron recovery of 90.01%, phosphorus grade of 0.36%.
Response 18:Thank you for your advice, which has been revised in the paper. In the process of the test, we found that increasing the amount of collector is beneficial to reduce the content of phosphorus in concentrate, but too much amount will increase the viscosity of flotation foam, which will have an adverse effect on the removal of phosphorus. As for 600 g / 800 g/t and t two collector dosage of separation indexes difference is small, due to the high phosphorus oolitic iron ore of phosphorus removal is very difficult, even 0.01% lower is difficult, we are currently expanding test process found that collector dosage of 800 g/t and 600 g/t, the indexes of both difference is very big, when the dosage of 600 g/t, the phosphorus content of iron concentrate 0.45%, 800 g/t, phosphorus content in the iron concentrate of 0.31%.
Point 19: Page 8 “Figure 6. Effects of dosage of Starch on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous” Improve legend of Figure 6. “It is known from Figure 6 that increased dosage of starch is conducive to reducing the iron content of the froth product, thereby reducing the loss rate of iron. When the dosage of starch was increased to 1000g/ t, the grade of iron concentrate was increased to 67.05%, the phosphorus content was reduced to 0.25%, the recovery of iron operation was 90.01%; while the dosage of starch was 1200g/t, the iron grade of iron concentrate was reduced to 66.75%, the phosphorus content was reduced to 0.24%, and the iron recovery was 87.99%. This further indicates that due to the excessive dosage of starch, starch also has a certain flocculation effect in addition to its inhibition of magnetite, and without the utilization of the action of phosphorus-containing minerals and collector ST, it adversely affects the quality of iron concentrate products.”
The effect of starch dosage on the iron content was minimal, only a significant decrease in the phosphorus recovery was observed.
Response 19: According to your suggestion, it has been modified. The main function of starch is to inhibit iron ore. At the same time, starch also has a certain flocculation. Excessive amount of starch is easy to produce flocculation, which has a negative impact on the flotation process.
Point 20: Page 9. Figure 7. Effects pH value of pulp on increasing iron and decreasing phosphorous. Improve legend of Figure 7.“It is known from Figure 7 that as the pH value of the pulp increased, the grade of the iron concentrate increased first and then decreased,….” it is not evident that the iron grade decreases with increasing pH.
“During the flotation process, the pH value is too high, and the viscosity of the pulp increased, which is not conducive to the adhesion of minerals to the froth, and thus affect the separation of phosphorus minerals and magnetite [Zhu, D.Q., et al. 2016].” In the present work this behavior is not very evident, for pH of 9 and 10 the results are similar.
Response 20: In the flotation process, the pH value of slurry mainly affects the adsorption between mineral surface and flotation agents. Since the surface properties of new iron ore and phosphate minerals produced by roasting high-phosphorus iron ore are quite different from those of natural magnetite and apatite, we have also confirmed the test records again, and the data are correct.
Point 21: Page 10 “It is known from the data in Table 2 that the one-roughing…” Must be? Table 3?. “It is known from the data in Table 2 that the one-roughing and one-scavenging reverse flotation on decreasing phosphorus for LIMS concentrate can reduce the content of harmful elemental phosphorus to less than 0.20%. “ This paragraph must be improved
Response 21: According to your suggestion, the problem has been modified.
Point 22: Page 11 Table 4. Main chemical…must be Table 5. Main chemical…Page 11 “It is known from Tables 5 and 6 that for” must be It is known from Tables 4 and 5 that for
Response 22: 谢谢你的建议，已经对文章中错误进行修改，请审阅。
Point 23: Page 17 In the conclusions chapter, you present in detail the surface characteristics of quartz before and after the action of the flotation agent. However throughout the work only analyzed the recovery and the content in phosphorus (Apatite ??) Conclusions must be improved
Response 23: Thank you for your advice. The mistakes in the article have been corrected. Please review it.
Point 24: The reference style is not consistent.
Example:
[26] Yu, W., Tang, Q.Y., Chen, J.A., Sun, T.C., 2016. Thermodynamic analysis of the carbothermic reduction of a high-phosphorus oolitic iron ore by FactSage. International Journal of Minerals Metallurgy and Materials.23(10):1126. DOI: 10.1007/s12613-016-1331-z.
Must be
[26] Yu W.; Tang Q.Y.; Chen J.A.; Sun T.C. Thermodynamic analysis of the carbothermic reduction of a high-phosphorus oolitic iron ore by FactSage. Int J Min Meter Mater 2016, 23(10), 1126. DOI: 10.1007/s12613-016-1331-
Response 24: According to the requirements of the journal, please review it.
Finally, thank you again for your hard review and I hope you can see our efforts to modify and get your approval. Of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
This version has been greatly improved. Although still presents many gramatical errors and lacks of accuracy with technical English words, at least this time most of the work can be understood.
In the attached document can be found the reviewer comments. In yellow they are highligthed the phrases and terms which must be improved.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer
Thank you very much for your valuable comments. According to your comments on the review of the manuscript, the research method description and some grammatical problems in figure 11 and figure 12 of the article have been modified, and the modified parts have adopted obvious notes. Please review. Sincerely hope you can see our efforts again. In the meantime, I hope you can give me your valuable suggestions again.
Yours sincerely！
Junhui Xiao
