2.1. Materials
The pure samples of spodumene, albite, and quartz minerals
were hand-picked from the Lijiagou lithium mine of Jinchuan
County, Sichuan, China. The chemical compositions of the samples
are listed in Table 1. The samples were crushed and ground using
in agate mortar. The products were then dry sieved to obtain a particle
size of 75 + 38 lm. A portion of the fraction (38 lm) was
further ground using an agate mortar then micro-sieved to obtain
a particle size of 5 lm. The coarse fraction (75 + 38 lm) was used
for the micro-flotation tests, and the finer fraction was used for the
zeta-potential measurements and pyrene fluorescence spectroscopy.
The calcium on the spodumene and albite minerals surfaces
were very low, the percentage of calcium were both below 0.2.
There has not calcium ion elution after stirring mineral which
mean that the calcium had no confound for the experiment.