Clay and water share a very complicated relationship. Inspite of plenty of research done on this all over the world, we are yet to unravel all the secrets of this complicated relationship between clay and water. There are so many books written on the CLAY-WATER relationship. However to simplify everything and to gain a basic understanding of this complex subject, we will discuss few basic things.
Mix clay in water and agitate for a while and then leave it for some time - What do you observe? The coarse particles settle down rapidly and the finer particles take a longer time to settle down and remains in suspension for some time.
This inherent natural property of clay only helps in carrying over of clay beneficiation. We can increase or decrease the suspension properties by using alkaline salts (calcium or magnesium salts). The salts that help to disperse (to deflocculate) are called deflocculating agents. The salts that help to coagulate(to flocculate) are called flocculating agents.
The water-clay relationship (dealing with the flow behaviour of clay) can be called Rheological properties of clay.
