Bastnaesite is an important rare earth mineral and is usually beneficiated by flotation. Sodium silicate is commonly used to depress calcium-bearing gangue minerals, however it can also depress bastnaesite when Ca²⁺ ions exist in the pulp. In this study, the effect of Ca²⁺ ions and sodium silicate individually or in combination on bastnaesite flotation was studied through micro-flotation, zeta potential, fluorescence spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. Micro-flotation results show that the combination of Ca²⁺ ions and sodium silicate depresses bastnaesite more severely due to their synergistic effect. Zeta potential results show that the combination renders the surface potential of bastnaesite negatively shifted more significantly. Fluorescence spectroscopy shows that the combination decreases the surface hydrophobicity of bastnaesite more severely. XPS shows that the combination increases the adsorption of sodium silicate on bastnaesite by forming hydrophilic Ca-SiO₃ precipitate, which causes more serious depression on bastnaesite flotation.

氟碳铈矿是一种重要的稀土矿物，通常通过浮选进行选矿。硅酸钠通常用于抑制含钙脉石矿物，但当纸浆中存在Ca ^{2+离子时，它也可以抑制氟碳铈矿。}在这项研究中，通过微浮选、zeta 电位、荧光光谱和 X 射线光电子能谱 (XPS) 测量研究了 Ca ²⁺离子和硅酸钠单独或组合对氟碳铈矿浮选的影响。微浮选结果表明，结合 Ca ²⁺离子和硅酸钠由于它们的协同作用而更严重地抑制氟碳铈矿。Zeta电位结果表明，该组合使氟碳铈矿的表面电位负移更显着。荧光光谱表明，该组合更严重地降低了氟碳铈矿的表面疏水性。_{XPS表明，该组合通过形成亲水的Ca-SiO 3}沉淀物增加了硅酸钠在氟碳铈矿上的吸附，这对氟碳铈矿的浮选造成了更严重的抑制。