Abstract: A Lead-zinc tailing of Hunan has a high content of fluorite and barite with similar floatability. In order to recover the fluorite from tailings, an effective separation between fluorite and barite was realized through the closed-circuit process of one roughing, one scavenging and four cleaning with water glass, aluminum sulfate, and tannin as inhibitors of barite and other gangue minerals, and sodium oleate as collector of fluorite. In the process, the fluorite concentrate with CaF₂ grade of 95.06% and CaF₂ recovery rate 96.58% was obtained.

Key words: Lead-zinc tailings, Fluorite, Barite, Flotation separation