The present invention is a trona concentrate and a process for floating
gangue material from trona ore that comprises forming an emulsion,
conditioning the trona ore at a high solids content in a saturated trona
suspension, and then floating and removing the gangue material. The
process for separating trona from gangue materials in trona ore can
include emulsifying an oil in an aqueous solution to form an oil-in-water
emulsion. A saturated trona suspension having a high solids content can
also be formed having trona of a desired particle size. The undissolved
trona in the saturated suspension can be conditioned by mixing the
saturated suspension and the oil-in-water emulsion to form a conditioning
solid suspension of trona and gangue material. A gas can be injected
through the conditioning solid suspension to float the gangue material.
Thus, the floated gangue material can be readily separated from the trona
to form a purified trona concentrate without requirements of additional
heat or other expensive processing steps.