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By Janusz S. Laskowski

"Frothers offered by different manufacturers are marketed with some information on their chemical and physical properties (e.g. density, viscosity, color, water-solubility, safety/toxicity, etc.). But frothers are used in flotation to generate fine bubbles and to stabilize the forth, and this information is only provided in a very qualitative description of the visual appearance of bubbles and froths. The terms “powerful” and “selective”, which have been commonly used to characterize frothers, have intuitive rather than scientific meaning.This paper introduces the DFI (Dynamic Foamability Index) plotted vs. CCC (Critical Coalescence Concentration) diagrams to classify flotation frothers (Fig. 1). The frothers characterized by low CCC and high DFI values have properties of strong flotation frothers, while those with high CCC and low DFI values are more selective. The proposed frother classification system, based on simple CCC and DFI measurements, provides, for the first time, a solid ground-work for characterization of the flotation frothers."

Jan 1, 2003

By Haghi. Hamed, Javad Vazifeh Mehrabani, Mehdi Sedigh

In this investigation, the possibility of physical separation methods such as attrition scrubbing, hydro-cycloning and also reverse flotation were investigated for silica and calcite removal from relatively low grade kaolin. The head sample was provided by the Iran China Clay Company and the major oxides contained in the head sample were Al2O3, SiO2, CaO and Fe2O3 with grades of 15.07%, 71.05%, 4.35% and 0.52% respectively. The liberation degree of calcite and iron impurities from kaolin particles were over 80% for particles finer than 210µm and 53µm respectively. Attrition scrubbing tests were carried out with scrubber cell of the conventional Denver flotation cell model D-12. Laboratory scale hydro cyclone was applied for the beneficiation of kaolin. Attrition scrubbing tests with control screen of 106µm did not achieve the desirable yield for purification of this kaolin sample, but hydro cyclone experiments resulted in better results. Hydro cyclone with 2.54 cm diameter used and the only variable was the cyclone inlet pressure ranging from 68.65kPa to 98.07kPa. The best inlet pressure was found to be 68.65kPa. Based on the optimized condition, Al2O3 and CaO amount in the hydro-cyclone overflow was 23% and 1.47% respectively. However weight recovery of the overflow in each cyclone experiment was less than 30% and multi stages of hydro-cyclones would have to be applied for higher weight recovery and better yield. All of the flotation tests were carried out in the conventional Denver flotation cell model D-12. Reverse floatation tests for calcite removal were carried out under alkali pH based on full factorial design of variables in 2 levels including one center point. The three parameters tested were collector dosage (gr/ton), pH and depressant dosage (gr/ton). The collected data from flotation tests were analyzed and optimized collector and depressant dosage were 1000 gr/ton and optimized pH was 8.5. Under the above mentioned conditions, calcite removal was about 75% and CaO content in the final product was reduced from 4.35% to 1.33%. However calcite removal will increase to more than 83% if the feed particle size in flotation tests is reduced from 210µm to finer than 53µm. Finally after optimization, the best working condition and possible flow sheet were developed.

Jan 1, 2014

By L. A. Vaisberg, E. V. Shishkin, S. V. Kazakov

"This research is targeted at finding solution to the problem of reduction of specific energy consumption during disintegration of solid materials with the help of machines, operating in a quasiresonant mode. The objective of the research is the development of an energy-saving method of disintegration of supestrong rock and by-products on the basis of vibrational units with two movable crushing elements, operating in a rigorous synchronous-antiphase mode without stringent kinematic links. In the course of investigations a mathematical analysis of the dynamics of vibrational units was performed to determine required mechanical parameters, allowing for adjustment of the machine actuating elements to high-frequency synchronous-antiphase oscillations in the quasiresonant frequency range. As a result of performed pilot tests, the reliability of desktop studies was confirmed and the dependency of process parameters on the machine regulated parameters in the quasiresonant frequency range was identified. The analysis of obtained data showed that during machine operation with cone-shaped crushing elements in the quasiresonant frequency range, the yield of the high-quality finished product (WFA grits of -3+1 mm grain size class) in one pass reaches 35%, whereas the form of the particles corresponds to the grain form with sharp edge. The quasiresonant operation mode of the vibrational unit with two freely suspended crushing elements (without stringent kinematic links) provided substantial reduction of energy intensity during crushing down to 0.16 kWh/t, which shows reduction of power consumption for crushing by more than 15% compared to conventional equipment.INTRODUCTION The most common and energy-consuming processes in the mining industry are the crushing and grinding of various solid materials. Such large energy costs are due to the fact that the capabilities of the existing crushing and grinding machines are based on traditional methods of destruction, and are limited by their kinematic features, which do not allow to reduce the energy intensity of processes, to lower the irreversible loss of useful components, to improve the quality of marketable products. In connection with the foregoing, the task of energy costs reducing for disintegration is one of the most important issues in the enrichment of both minerals and processing of man-made raw materials. The solution of this problem is possible only through the creation of a fundamentally new highly efficient technique and technology for processing raw materials [1, 2]. It seems that the greatest prospects in this respect are the vibration methods of disintegration, in particular, the vibratory cone crusher based on a two-mass system without rigid kinematic connections between the crushing bodies, with vertical vibrations of the working bodies. In this machine, the principle of rational material destruction is realized – crushing without re-grinding [3-5]."

Jan 1, 2018

By Andrzej Luszczkiewicz, Tomasz Chmielewski, Jan Drzymala, Andrzej Konieczny, Rafal Kaleta

Properties of the sedimentary Polish copper ore mined from the Legnica-Glogow Copper Basin (SW Poland) by KGHM Polish Copper S.A. were presented and currently used beneficiation technologies were described. Due to a unique lithological layered structure of the polymetallic deposit and existing mining system, the ore currently processed in the three KGHM concentrators is very complex with variable content of the carbonate, sandstone and shale fractions. The mined copper ore contains from 0.8 to 1.8 % Cu and Ag, Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, V and Mo as accompanying metals. The paper presents difficulties in upgrading the LGOM ore and selected possible solutions and development concepts of its processing. The first one is a chemical treatment with controlled amount of sulfuric acid of special product of flotation such as for instance middlings. The acid treatment leads to increased liberation of copper minerals and better further processing. Another concept is atmospheric leaching in oxygenated sulfuric acid and ferric ions solution as the major unit operation applied to selected low grade final flotation concentrates or flotation by-products. The third approach, based on copper ore pre-flotation with a frother to partially remove Corg, is also considered.

Jan 1, 2014

By Claudio L. Schneider, Reiner Neumann

Any serious study of stereological conversion procedures must be based on an as accurate as possible complete fractionation of a real mineralogical texture. The original work on the Dolomite- Sphalerite Magstream? separation provided excellent data for establishing a working stereological conversion procedure, which has been successfully applied to a number of ores since its implementation. The linear grade distributions measured from these fractionated particles have been published and are accessible. The procedure for stereological conversion from areal measurements is exactly equal to the procedure for linear measurements. Particle composition from the dolomite-sphalerite density-fractionated particle sets, derived from both linear and areal data (Figures 1 and 2, respectively) are redundant, after proper transformation, and match the particle’s compositional range (plotted against S.G.) expected from Magstream?; direct density measurements by Hemicropicnometry plots within the ranges. Linear data cannot be used without conversion, but areal measurements are often directly applied as liberation spectra. Our areal measurements, without stereological conversion (Figure 3), differ completely from the results after transformation, and its density range falls mostly out of the expected/measured values. Therefore non-transformed areal data cannot be directly applied as useful liberation information.

Jan 1, 2003

By Claudio Bisso, Javier Vargas, Charles Lozano

"This paper summarizes the activities performed to predict SAG milling throughput at Minera Esperanza. Having highly reliable geometallurgical models aided by the new computer tools and specific metallurgical testing to rely on has become a major issue in recent times due to their impact on the business. Minera Esperanza’s SAG throughput model was constructed by characterizing the ore feed and operational parameters of the plant. Producing a robust model required satisfying number of requirements for the parameters used for both the ore and the plant as follow: 1) geologic and geometallurgical characterization parameters; and 2) parameters of a plant running at the rated production under optimum operating conditions. Obtaining these parameters required increasing the quantity of samples and metallurgical testing through drilling campaigns, mapping the drill holes and putting samples through various comminution tests while sampling all operational flows at the plant to obtain the metallurgical information for the operational parameters. The information was entered on the JKSimMet software to enable a throughput model to be developed to output SAG mill throughput predictions that are very close to actual throughput figures, i.e., accurate within a range of 2% on a monthly basis."

Jan 1, 2014

By Masoud Askari, Ahmad Rafizadeh, Shahamat Rostami, Mohammad Qaredaqi

Gole - Gohar Iron ore mines located in Sirjan, Southeast of Iran, have more than 1 billion Iron ore deposit and this area comprises 45 % of Iran Iron reservoirs. The aim of Wet tailing processing line is recovering Hematite ore from wet tailing of Gole - Gohar iron ore processing plant. The Investigations of Hematite recovery plant showed that the recovery of Iron ore to concentrate in Wet Tailing Processing (WTP) line is very lower than that has been predicted, sampling, and designing of the process parameters are not accurate and designed magnetic field intensity is not reasonable for the recovery of Iron in form of Hematite in this line feed. Applying of MIMS in WTP separator and changes in circuit caused in overwhelming increase of Fe recovery, from 11 to 40%. Although recovery of WTP line was improved, but low recovery of this processing line and high content of Hematite ore in WTP tailing, made applying Wet High Intensity Magnetic separators unavoidable. Two kinds of WHIMS have tested for processing of WTP line tailing. Results showed that traditional Jones separator with grooved plate matrix, is more suitable to achieve a better quality of concentrate compared to Slon® separator.

Jan 1, 2014

By Paul W. Cleary

"Particle scale simulation of industrial particle flows using DEM (Discrete Element Method) offers the opportunity for better understanding the flow dynamics leading to improvements in equipment design and operation that can potentially lead to large increases in efficiency, throughput or product quality. DEM has been used for modelling many industrial applications, particularly milling. This includes ball and rock motions and power consumption in ball mills, AG and SAG mills, vibrational segregation, flows in rotating drums, operation of dragline excavators and hopper flows. In mineral processing, DEM has been concentrated on mills because of their critical importance. However DEM also offers the opportunity to improve many other parts of mineral processing operations. These areas often do not receive the attention that the key comminution equipment commands, but can become critical when they fail or under-perform. Importantly their assessment/improvement using DEM is often much more feasible because of smaller problem sizes and the absence of poorly understood physics such as breakage. In this paper we describe DEM simulations of four important pieces of non-comminution equipment that are commonly found in or near mineral processing plants (these are shown in Figure 1):"

Jan 1, 2003

By G. S. Hansford, G. E. Searby

"Ferrous iron oxidation kinetics was measured in continuous culture at temperatures between 65 and 75ºC, using thermophilic microbes suitable for high temperature bioleaching. The resulting specific oxidation rates were modelled as a function of the ferric/ferrous iron ratio. The results were compared to those obtained by conventional mesophilic microbes.Microbially mediated ferrous iron oxidation is a vital sub-process in the mesophilic bioleaching of sulfide minerals and is expected to be of similar importance at elevated temperatures using thermophilicmicrobes.A thermophilic archaeal culture used in chalcopyrite bioleaching was successfully grown in continuous culture on ferrous sulfate, indicating the capability of the microbes to sustain growth for long periods on the energy provided by the conversion of ferrous iron to ferric iron, the primary leaching agent in sulfide mineral bioleaching.Steady state data was obtained at residence times of between 70 and 10 hours, with washout occurring at residence times between 11 and 9 hours, corresponding to a maximum growth rate (µmax) of between 0.09 and 0.11 hr-1. The reactions were followed by measurements of the solution redox potential, soluble iron concentrations, and offgas analysis of the oxygen and carbon dioxide utilisation rates."

Jan 1, 2003

By S. Kelebek, A. Khan, J. Caceres, D. Beckett

"Pyrrhotite in nickel-copper sulphide ores is nickeliferrous and intimately associated with pentlandite. Due to its low nickel content, pyrrhotite rejection is an important step in processing of these ores. In our laboratory, various reagents were investigated for their effect on pyrrhotite depression. Among these, a combined use of triethylenetetramine and sodium metabisulphite was found highly promising.The work described in this paper has two parts. The firs part is a summary of results obtained on process samples from the pyrrhotite rejection circuit at Falconbridge’s Strathcona Mill. The second part involves simulation of the circuit performance based on the reagent conditions used in the experimental work and the concept of split factors.Two sets of reagent conditions were evaluated. The first one involved baseline conditions, simulating the current reagent performance. The second one simulated the impact these new reagents can have on the circuit performance.The simulation results obtained under baseline conditions indicated a good agreement with the current circuit performance (Figure 1). The simulation results suggest that at practically the same pentlandite recovery and tailing grades, the circuit concentrate nickel grade can be doubled through effective pyrrhotite rejection by these new reagents (Figure 2)."

Jan 1, 2003

By D. Kosior

Influence of frothers (a-terpineol and n-octanol) concentration on kinetics of a three phase contact (TPC) formation by a bubble colliding with a hydrophobic surface (Teflon) of different roughness was studied using a high-speed camera (1040 frames per second). It was found that the Teflon surface roughness and the frother concentration strongly affected time of the TPC formation (tTPC) and time of drainage (tD) of the liquid film separating the colliding bubble from the solid surfaces. With increasing Teflon surface roughness, from ca 1 to 80 µm, the time of the TPC formation was shortened by over the order of magnitude, from ca 100 to a few milliseconds only. At low a-terpineol and n-octanol concentrations, thetTPC values were shorter than in distilled water due to lowering the bubble velocity in the frother presence and diminished bouncing of the colliding bubble. However, at high frothers concentrations the tTPC values were prolonged, despite that the bubble velocity was similar. The prolongation of the tTPC at high frother concentrations indicates that air (micro- and/or nano-bubbles) was present at the Teflon surfaces of different roughness. The mechanism of the tTPCprolongation at high frother dosage is described.

Sep 1, 2012

By S. K. Pan, M. P. Srivastava, N. Prasad

"Dalli mines of Bhilai Steel Plant, India is fully mechanized iron ore mine having wet processing system. It has a capacity to treat 5 Mt of ROM. In processing circuit of Dalli mines, scrubbing, wet screening and classification operation is being carried out. Average slime generation for the last five years is about 14% of ROM. As the mining has reached to the lower benches, fines generation is more. As a result, very fine and heavy particles, which settle fast, are being discarded with the slime to tailing pond. These heavy and faster settling particles were causing jamming in the thickeners.Laboratory investigations were carried out at Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel (RDCIS) to suggest a suitable scheme to recover high quality fines so that the availability of thickener can improve. The slime samples were first treated in a floatex density separator. The concentrate obtained from the floatex density separator was treated in hydrocyclone. Laboratory investigations indicated that the slime with 49% Fe, 12.7% silica and 10.7% alumina can be upgraded to 62.1% Fe, 3.3% silica and 2% alumina with 36% material recovery. Based on the laboratory studies ,a system was installed at Dalli minesThe general arrangement of the system is shown in Fig. below."

Jan 1, 2003

By Y. H. Wang

Micro-flotation tests of spodumene, beryl, quartz and feldspar have been carried out by using CaCl2 and FeCl3 as modifiers and a blending collector of oleic acid and hydroximic acid. CaCl2 shows efficient activation for spodumene when pH is above 11.5, and FeCl3 exhibits a markedly activation and good selectivity for spodumene in the range of pH 4 to 10. The main species of CaCl2 are CaOH+ and Ca(OH)2 when pH is above 11.5, and the main species of FeCl3?6H2O are Fe(OH)+2 and Fe(OH)3 during the pH range of 4 to 10. A selective flotation of spodumene and beryl from pegmatic ore had also been completed while using FeCl3?6H2O as activator and the blending collector. A bulk concentrate containing 1.087% BeO and 4.70% Li2O has also been obtained in the flotation of spodumene and beryl from pegmatic ore assaying 0.097% BeO and 0.45% Li2O, and the recoveries of BeO and Li2O in concentrate are 74.38% and 69.50% respectively.

Jan 1, 2014

By Ljubisa Obradovic, Baisui Han, Batnasan Altansukh, Zoran Stevanovic, Atsushi Shibayama, Jonovic Radojka, Daizo Ishiyama, Kazutoshi Hag, Radmila Markovic, Ljiljana Avramovic

This paper discussed a combined froth flotation and high pressure leaching (HPL) process to recover copper from mine tailings. At first, froth flotation were carried out using the mine tailings sample under various conditions in the presence of different pH (3.5-10) and sulfurizing reagent value (0-1000 g/t), respectively. As a result, optimum condition (sulfurizing reagent of 1000 g/t, pH of 10, PAX (collector) of 100 g/t and MIBC (frother) of 200 g/t) was found for froth flotation of copper. The effects of sulphuric acid concentration, leaching temperature, total pressure (steam pressure plus oxygen pressure) on high pressure leaching (HPL) of mine tailing were investigated using sulphuric acid solution in the presence of oxygen. The best conditions for HPL were obtained to be sulphuric acid concentration: 0 mol/L (water), leaching temperature: 170 ?, total pressure: 2 MPa, leaching time: 1 hr and pulp density: 100 g/L. The leaching rate of copper reached nearly 99 % and the concentration of copper in pregnant leach solution (PLS) was 0.24 g/L. Finally, copper in the mine tailing was recovered using froth flotation followed by HPL. As a result of a combined froth flotation and HPL, the vast majority of copper (99 %) from the mine tailings was extracted.

Jan 1, 2014

By Lev O. Filippov, Inna V. Filippova

"Flotation of metal-organic precipitate in column is sensible to the hydrodynamic conditions determined by the diameter and the dispersion of rising bubbles. Thus, the dissipation energy in the system resulting of ratio between superficial fluid velocities (gas and feed) in the column is the main parameter for precipitate flotation in pilot or industrial scales. The suggested limiting factor is the aggregate stability under the turbulence created by the rising bubbles. The stability of precipitate is related to the structural organisation of aggregates, which determines the size distribution of particles during precipitation and flotation stages.Structural evolution of Mo precipitate and the destruction phenomenon were described by using of the various fractal dimensions. The fractal studies allow the detection of a structural scaled organisation of the precipitate flocs. The fractal dimension of the particle mass distribution Dm=1.94+/-0.15 suggests, for the floc structure, a cluster-cluster aggregation process either with restructuring or breakage phases.The destruction process, which occurs for the lowest values of the dissipation energy E (0.02 . 0.05 W/kg) was characterised by a fractal dimension Dg of size distribution. Besides, the destruction of floc produces very fine particles, and thus induces the difficulties of bubble-particle collision during the precipitate flotation in column."

Jan 1, 2003

By Vasily V. Lodeischikov, Adolf F. Panchenko, Olga D. Khmelnitskaya, Vladimir E. Dementyev

Pilot plant tests of underground gold leaching from Maminskoye deposit oxide ores at a grade of 0,7 g/t Au were carried out. The underground leaching flow sheet includes Au dissolution by chlorine-containing solutions, Au adsorption from solution on active carbon, carbon concentrate ashing and calcine melting to produce high grade gold concentrate. The underground leaching system throughput was 15 m3 of solution per hour. Gold concentration in pregnant solutions was 0.12-0.13 mg/l. Gold recovery from solutions into carbon was in the range of 63-84%. It was demonstrated that the low Au recovery in the adsorption cycle was due to the presence in pregnant solutions of "active" chlorine, which destroys active carbon and causes a sharp decrease of the carbon loading capacity for gold. To improve the adsorption indices, previously dechlorinated pregnant solutions using bituminous coal or Na2S2O3, is recommended. Ion exchange process was tested as an alternative for gold extraction from dechlorinated solutions. In the testwork period, 4.4 kg of gold were produced with a chlorine consumption of 3.5 kg per 1 g of gold. During the tests a program of environmental protection measures was completed to provide the necessary safety precautions of the underground leaching works.

Jan 1, 2003

By C. Raghu Kumar

Hydraulic or teetered bed separators (TBS) are finding new avenues for application in the field of mineral processing. Floatex Density Separator (FDS) is a hydraulic/teetered bed separator capable of operating at high tonnage due to its advanced instrumentation. FDS/TBS is being used in Indian mineral sand industry for classification and segregation of different minerals. The purpose of this paper is to provide details on the performance of the plant scale FDS in recovering the chromite from feed (below 1mm size). Historically this feed has been processed using hydrocyclones and spiral classifiers; however, there is a strong trend now to employ teetered bed separators, thus allowing significant changes to be made in the plant for improving process efficiency. In the present work, the performance of the plant scale FDS is described in terms of partition curve (yield, cut size, classification efficiency/Ep) for different combination of process variables and also in terms of metallurgical grade and recovery. It is found that, efficient classification can be achieved at a maximum cut size of 380 µm with and the imperfection is also reported as low as 0.16. The grade of the underflow product is enriched as maximum as 52.2% Cr2O3 from a feed assaying 40.4% Cr2O3.

Sep 1, 2012

By Gus Van Weert, Samuel A. Bolorunduro, David B. Dreisinger

"INTRODUCTIONThe objective of this work was to deport silver into a residue suitable for subsequent extraction without compromising the high base metal extraction during the pressure oxidation.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe complex sulphide from the tailing pond of Cannington mine, Australia, was re-grounded and a bulk concentrate was recovered by flotation. The major economic sulphides are galena and sphalerite. The chemical analyses revealed 17.22% Fe; 4.88% Zn; 8.22% Pb; 9.49% S2- and 422 g/t Ag. The baseline cyanidation yielded 36.60% of silver at high cyanide consumption (24.17 kg/t NaCN). Pressure oxidation at 150°C (in the absence of iodide), followed by cyanidation of the residue yielded 8% silver extraction. Pressure oxidation was carried out at 110-150°C in sulphate media with additions of potassium iodide and the resulting residue was subjected to cyanidation. High recovery of silver was achieved because its incorporation into lead-hydronium jarosite during the pressure oxidation was minimised, while its deportment into the cyanide-soluble silver iodide was favoured (Figure 1). Silver recovery decreased slightly at high temperatures (140° and 150°C) because of the enhanced stability and kinetics of leadhydronium jarosite, but this could be overcome by increasing acidity and iodide concentration of the slurry."

Jan 1, 2003

By V. Avzian Belozersky reg 453524, Vasily V. Lodeischikov, Adolf F. Panchenko, Til E. Vidusov, Olga D. Khmelnitskaya, Vladimir E. Dementyev

"Presently, there is a number of gold deposits which cannot be developed using the conventional technologies with acceptable economic indices due to low gold content, high depth of ore occurence and other conditions. For such ores, an innovation technology of underground gold leaching in the place of their occurrence is of special interest. The technology excludes ore mining and hoisting to the surface. This enables the production cost of 1 g of gold to be considerably reduced in comparison with conventional methods of gold recovery.The Maminskoye deposit oxidized ores were chosen as the subject of underground leaching because they are ideally suited for this purpose due to their composition and hydrological parameters. The ore reserves within the underground leaching block are 90, 000 t with 0.7 g/t average gold grade.An experimental system for underground leaching with a throughput of 15 cubic m solutions per hour was developed. A combined filtration-and-infiltration system of the ore massif development by holedrillingwhere pregnant solutions are air-lifted was worked out.The underground leaching flowsheet includes Au dissolution by chlorine-containing solutions, Au adsorption from solution onto active carbon, carbon concentrate ashing and calcine melting to produce Dore metal."

Jan 1, 2003

By Jiongtian Liu, Guixia Fan, Caom Yijun

A cyclonic-static micro bubble flotation column (FCSMC) is an effective separation device for fine grain treatment. The separation of fine ilmenite by FCSMC was explored in this work. The influence of reagents dosage (regulator, collector and auxiliary collector), pulp density, circulation pressure and aeration quantity on TiO2grade and recovery wasinvestigated.The optimal conditions of a rougher are follows: pulp density 45%, pH 5.0, MOH collector dosage 2800 g/t, diesel oil dosage 700 g/t, circulationpressure 0.19 MPa, aeration quantity 0.8 m3/(m2•min). The optimal conditions of a cleaner are follows: pH 4.0, circulation pressures 0.16 MPa, and aeration quantity 0.5 m3/(m2•min).A pilot plant continuous test with a rougher-cleaner by FCSMC for 72 hours was proceeded under the optimum conditions. Compared with industrial flotation machines, the concentrate grade of FCSMC is 48.11% with an improvement of 1.08 percentagepoints, while the recovery is 82.36% with 13.64 percentagepoints increment. Moreover, the flowsheet is simplified from six parts (a rougher-two scavenger-three cleaner) in flotation machines to two parts (a rougher-cleaner) in FCSMC. Proofs were also provided by the analysis of the by-size grade and recovery of concentrate.Results show the FCSMC is an effective separation device to recover -74 µm size fraction.

Jan 1, 2014