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By Erico Tabosa, Kym Runge, Peter Holtham

"The distribution of turbulence in an industrial scale mechanical flotation cell and its effect on flotation kinetics was studied using a fully instrumented 3m³ cell. The cell was operated at a copper concentrator in Australia with different combinations of airflow rates, impeller speeds and sizes and cell aspect ratio providing a wide range of hydrodynamic conditions. An analysis of the overall flotation cell performance showed that the overall copper recoveries were very similar for the conditions tested. However, by decoupling pulp effects from froth effects it was possible to evaluate whether the changes made affected the pulp zone and/or froth zone responses. The analysis showed that the overall recovery has the potential to be up to 7% higher, if not limited by froth recovery. The cell hydrodynamics were characterised by the overall energy dissipation rate and, to understand the distribution of turbulence within the cell, localised measurements were made using a piezoelectric vibration sensor. By comparing the metallurgical performance of the cell with the different hydrodynamic conditions it was found that the collection zone flotation rate constant was not directly related to overall energy dissipation, as is commonly observed at laboratory scale, where energy is usually only changed by varying impeller speed. In this study, energy dissipation rate was varied using not only impeller speed, but also the size of the impeller and the cell aspect ratio. In these circumstances, the best correlation was found to be between the collection zone flotation rate constant and the distribution of turbulence, i.e. the size of the turbulent zone."

Jan 1, 2014

By B. Aydin, G. Erturk, G. Bulut

Coal is a complex material because of its structure consisting of carbon constituents and mineral matter. Flotation is readily carried out due to hydrophobic characteristic of coal. Therefore coal flotation is the most commonly used technique for fine coal beneficiation in order to acquire clean coal separating ash forming mineral matter from carbonaceous matter. In the coal flotation, floatability of coal both depends on characteristic of coal and used flotation reagent. Frothers as a flotation reagent are used to facilitate air dispersion into fine bubbles by prevention of bubble coalescence in the pulp phase, and stabilization of flotation froths. In this study, the effects of frother types and concentrations at different pH and particle size on the coal flotation were investigated. The representative sample was taken from Zonguldak, Turkey. It contains 9.1% ash and 7313 (kcal/kg) calorific value. Pine oil, Dowfroth 250, MIBC and Isooctanol were tested as frother types. It is determined that 1.92 ppm frother concentration is sufficient to float coal, except pine oil. In mixed frother tests, it is seen that Dowfroth 250 is more effective than others. No significant difference in coal recovery was observed for flotation tests at the different pH values. The best results are obtained in size of coal (-0.1 mm) with all frothers.

Jan 1, 2014

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 Ghislain Bournival, Seher Ata, Yesenia Saavedra Moreno

"In froth flotation, frothers are commonly added to the pulp to modify the interfacial properties of bubbles. These properties may be modelled using commercial software packages. The volume of fluid (VOF) method was used to track the interface motion during the post-rupture oscillation of the newly formed bubble. The aim of this research was to provide an insight into the modelling of viscoelastic phenomena through the coalescence dynamics of two bubbles in solutions of various surface tensions using a three-dimensional computational study. Different surface tensions were used to simulate changes in methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) concentration. The computational results were evaluated by comparing the oscillatory motion of the newly formed bubble for the different MIBC concentrations. For known MIBC concentrations, the deviations of the computational damping constants from the experiments were quantified, revealing possible deviations in the VOF surface tension model. In addition, the analysis provided insight into the flow patterns of the fluids and the effect of frother concentration on the velocity magnitude in the liquid and air phases. This analysis provided a further understanding of coalescence dynamic and post-rupture oscillation in froth flotation. Such a process is believed to affect the stability of particles at the interface due to the release of surface energy when the bubble surface is reduced.INTRODUCTIONIn froth flotation, bubble coalescence is an important phenomenon that is highly dependent on the interfacial properties of the liquid film between bubbles. It is known that the frother adsorption at the liquid-air interface changes the interfacial properties, resulting in an increase of surface elasticity and reduction of surface energy (Pugh, 2016). However, in a two-phase system, it is the frother type, concentration, frother molecule conformation at the interface and viscoelasticity properties that dictate film stability (Pugh, 2016). The viscoelasticity phenomena can be explained in terms of surface viscosity, which quantifies the energy dissipation at the interface and surface elasticity that represents the energy absorbed at the interface as result of bubble oscillation (Pugh, 2016). In the case of systems stabilized by nonionic frothers, it has been shown that surface forces alone do not account for film stability, but the viscoelasticity represents the ability to damp external disturbances in the thin film separating the bubbles and prevent coalescence (Santini et al., 2007)."

Jan 1, 2018

By C. Stollberg

The recovery of valuable materials from electronic waste is of growing importance for the re-source management not only in the industrialized nations. Being a significant step in an innovative automated process for recycling of metals and plastics from used electric and electronic equipment, the results of the work introduced below, prove the applicability of microbial leaching of metals from printed circuit boards (PCBs) at industrial scale. Within the first project step, which started in March 2005, experiments in shaking flasks with a mixed culture of chemolitotrophic bacteria (mainly Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans) were carried out to study the solubilization of non-ferrous metals present in the electronic waste. It was found that the best results were achieved by means of a two-stage process in which leaching of these metals was carried out by acidified ferric sulphate solutions generated as a result of the prior bacterial oxidation of ferrous ions to the ferric state. Special reactor systems for bacterial generation of such solutions and for the subsequent leaching of non-ferrous metals from the waste were developed, constructed and tested under laboratory and pilot scale conditions. The optimum technological parameters such as concentration of iron ions, pH-value, temperature and presence of nutrients were established for both reactor systems. Parameters such as particle size, pulp density and flow rate of the suspensions being leached were established for the leaching process carried out under continuous-flow conditions. The complex flow sheet reflects a highly efficient technology on the basis of metal recovery, environmental effect and economical acceptance. The process was successfully implemented into an industrial demonstration unit.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. Lin

It is difficult to remove arsenic and bismuth from antimony in the process of crude electro refining. The electro refining of antimony has been studied using ammonium fluoride-antimony sulphate electrolyte system. The Influence of temperature, current density and additives on arsenic and bismuth removal from crude antimony has been investigated in this paper. Optimum process parameters, namely, temperature of 25?, current density of 400A/m2, distance between anode and cathode of 50mm, electrolytic period of 24 hours, oxalic acid dosage of 10g/L and complexon III dosage of 0.2 g/L have been ascertained.

Jan 1, 2014

By Khoi Nguyen, Keeney. Luke

An outcome of geometallurgical mapping and modeling is the generation of continuous down hole profiles of quantitative geometallurgical attributes at assay scale. These attributes vary from traditional routine data collection methods such as assays and geotechnical logging (e.g. RQD, Fracture Frequency), to new measurements including petrophysical attributes, EQUOtip hardness data and modelled estimates of metallurgical performance indices (e.g. A*b, BMWi). Highly variable continuous geometallurgical data with high spatial resolution can make it difficult to identify spatially continuous domains. An automated method based on the well known time series analysis technique of cumulative summation (CuSum) has been developed which uses statistical analysis to identify domain boundaries in down hole profiles. A bootstrap analysis automatically identifies potential domain boundary locations with associated confidence levels and a series of t-tests determine the significance of defined populations. A hierarchical clustering algorithm is applied to results to enable data sensitivity to be taken into account. The method produces statistically significant populations and is suitable for application on either single or multiple drill hole datasets. Domains defined preserve the inherent variability of the continuous down hole data and provide a method for scaling up variability data (i.e. assay interval scale) to mine scale (i.e. bench scale, block model). A major advantage of the method is its ability to provide suitable input parameters for use in spatial modeling of non-additive and non-linear geometallurgical attributes through conditional simulation techniques.

Jan 1, 2014

By Stoyan N. Groudev, Ioannis Paspaliaris, Irena I. Spasova, Kostas Komnitsas

"Acid mine drainage waters generated in the uranium deposit Curilo, western Bulgaria, were treated by means of a constructed wetland located in the deposit. The waters had a pH in the range of about 2.5 - 4.1 and contained uranium, radium, some heavy metals (iron, manganese, copper, zinc, cadmium, cobalt, nickel, lead), arsenic and sulphates in concentrations much higher than the relevant permissible levels for waters intended for use in the agriculture and/or industry. The wetland covered an area of about 140 m2 and was characterized by an abundant water and emergent vegetation and a diverse microflora. Typha latifolia, Typha angustifolia and Phragmites australis were the prevalent plant species in the wetland but species of the genera Juncus, Eleocharis, Scirpus, Carex and Poa as well as different algae were also well present.The water treatment was started in July 2001 and until now (August 2002) the wetland effluents were characterized by pollutants concentrations decreased below the relevant permissible levels. The water flow rate through the wetland during this period varied in the range of about 0.2 - 1.0 l/s. The water clean-up markedly depended on the temperature but was efficient even in the cold winter months at air and water temperatures close to 0oC. The removal of pollutants was due to different processes but the microbial dissimilatory sulphate reduction and the sorption of pollutants on organic matter (viable and dead plant and microbial biomass) and clay minerals played the main role. Negative effects of the pollutants on the growth and activity of the indigenous plant and microbial communities were not observed."

Jan 1, 2003

By S. F. Kaplan, A. S. Dolotov, V. N. Kovalev

"At this point in time, autoclave recovery (POX) followed by sorption cyanidation (CIL) is one of the most promising technologies for the efficient processing of refractory and double refractory gold-bearing sulphide rock. This hydrometallurgical technology requires the use of a large amount of water (up to 5 tons per ton of used concentrate), resulting in highly saline water with high pH (pH 9-11), high content of cyanides (up to 300 mg/l), arsenic compounds, antimony and a number of heavy metals. In order to determine the possibility of using recycling industrial water in POX-CIL technology, several batches of experiments were conducted (using the double refractory flotation concentrate of the Mayskoye deposit). Urban water with a chloride ion content of 10 mg/l was used during the reference POX-CIL experiment as the liquid phase of the ??? feed pulp. At that, gold extraction rate amounted to 89.4 %. A full cycle of POX(200 ºC)-CIL was carried out during the first part of the experiments; at that, fresh concentrate of the untreated recycling water with cyanide ion content of 95.4 mg/l, left after the completion of the previous CIL cycle, was used for repulping. It has been established that direct use of untreated recycling industrial water is impossible due to a sharp decline in gold extraction (preg-robbing) down to 79.5%. The presence of chloride ions, cyanide ions and other ligands in the liquid phase provides effective complexion formation for the recovery gold; complex gold compounds are quickly and firmly sorbed by the natural carbonaceous substances of the concentrate at the stage of autoclave recovery; they are virtually not cyanized onwards, and gold is carried over to the tailings. During the the second batch of experiments, recycling industrial water with cyanide and chloride ions' concentration of 500 mg/l each was subjected to the reverse osmosis desalination (up to 6 times in a successive order). After each desalting cycle, such water was used as the liquid phase of the feed pulp in POX-CIL. 6 cycles of RO desalination enabled the extraction of 86.1% Au (which is close to reference recovery). During the third batch of experiments, recycling industrial water was diluted with distilled water (2, 4, 16, 32, 64 times); after each dilution cycle, this water was used as the liquid phase of the POX-CIL feed pulp. Gold extraction after 64-fold dilution amounted to 82.6%. The results of the conducted researches show that the use of untreated recycling industrial water in POX-CIL hydrometallurgical technology is absolutely impossible due to a sharp decline in gold extraction. Even the 64-fold dilution with pure water is inefficient both from the perspective of gold extraction and of rational use of water. Reverse osmosis desalination solves the problem of water treatment except for the removal of cyanide ion, which requires separate reagent treatment of water."

Jan 1, 2018

By Y. M. Zhu, G. C. Gong

"The influences of citric acid (CA) on the flotation behavior of cassiterite using styrene phosphonic acid (SPA) as the collector were studied via single mineral flotation tests, contact angle measurements, zeta potential determinations and solution chemistry calculations in this paper. The results of single mineral flotation tests revealed under the conditions that pH=4 and the dosage of SPA 100 mg/L, the recovery of cassiterite reached 76.78%. The addition of 20 mg/L AC decreased the recovery by 12.42% at pH=4. Contact angle measurements demonstrated the adsorption of CA prior to SPA made the cassiterite more hydrophilic. The results of zeta potential determinations and solution chemistry calculations indicated the chemisorption of C6H7O7- and C6H6O72- filled parts of the Sn site on cassiterite surface and prevented the SPA from getting adsorbed. The hydrophilic effect of AC was stronger than the hydrophobic effect of SPA and the flotation of cassiterite was crippled. INTRODUCTION Tin is an important metal which is widely used in medical instruments, marine engineering materials, electronic and electrical devices, welding, weapon manufacturing and organotin compounds industries (Angadi et al., 2015). Cassiterite is the only mineral from which the tin can be extracted, thus it is of great importance to efficiently exploit the cassiterite mineral. Flotation is an indispensable method for the recovery of cassiterite (Li et al., 2015). However, cassiterite is usually in association with many other gangue minerals which are of similar floatability, such as quartz, calcite, fluorite, iron oxide, wolframite, scheelite and tourmaline (Sreevinas, 1997). So some modifiers are necessary in the cassiterite flotation process. The amounts of the modifiers used in the flotation must be judicious and the overmuch modifiers may cripple the recovery of cassiterite (Parsonage et al., 1987). Nevertheless, the research about the effects of the modifiers on the flotation behavior of cassiterite has been rarely reported. In this paper, the influences of citric acid (CA) on the flotation of cassiterite using styrene phosphonic acid (SPA) as the collector were investigated by flotation tests, contact angle measurements, zeta potential determinations and solution chemistry calculations."

Jan 1, 2018

By Peter J. Scales

The recovery of water for re-use in minerals processing is an important issue in the reduction of water use in mining, as is the dewatering of tailings to reduce the propensity of ?wet? tailings dams. It is common in these dewatering operations to use thickeners whereby polymeric flocculants are combined with the dilute feed to the thickener to aid sedimentation and the subsequent consolidation of particulate materials. Thickeners are the workhorses of water recovery and tailings dewatering and although the basics are well understood, there is still no ability to reliably predict the throughput and underflow density from a thickener based on traditional sedimentation tests and flux analysis. The reasons for the discrepancy between full-scale operations and predictions based on laboratory tests are numerous, including difficulties in mimicking the flocculation conditions experienced in the field and the shear conditions in the thickener. The latter effects are little understood and hard to quantify and include effects due to flocculated aggregate densification, complimentary shear and compressional effects and aggregate break-up. Developing a set of test protocols to quantify the effects of densification, shear in compression effects and aggregate breakup and the subsequent contributions of each to compressional dewatering in a thickening environment has been completed for a simple model polymer flocculated particulate suspension. The data and analysis shows that aggregate densification is a dominant contributor to the difference between observed and predicted behavior based on laboratory tests. A major consideration in the analysis is the fact that common thickener operations are permeability limited and although the various effects are all important, the one that results in the fastest water release is dominant. Of interest also are the shear rate, concentration, and time dependence of the aggregate densification process. A basic model of the process has been developed along with network yielding tests conducted using rheometry. Keywords: compressional dewatering, gravity thickening, rheometry, aggregate densification, raked batch settling

Sep 1, 2012

By Milind Chikhale, Yogesh Reja, Keshav Tyagi

"Using computer models for process design is a well-established practice in the mineral industry. In recent years, there has been emphasis on modeling of processing plant as a whole. This paper covers development of a model for iron ore processing plant. Basic purpose of this model is to use simulation for efficient plant design and help in minimizing risk at the very initial stage of project. Feed to the plant is Hematite iron ore from a deposit located in Eastern India. Major processes in plant include multi-stage crushing, screening, grinding, classification, gravity and magnetic separation. Models for different process equipment were developed using METSIM and Bruno simulation software. Customized black box models and known mathematical models were used for predicting behaviour of processes. Data needed was identified based on the model type. The required data was arranged as per project requirement and processed for development and validation of model. Equipment models were developed and validated on the basis of process design basis, theoretical and empirical data from technical references, and bench scale and pilot scale testwork results. Validated process circuits were assembled to simulate and represent the entire plant process. The result shows expected variation in plant output as a result of variation in the feed. Study concludes by discussing potential applications of the model in plant design."

Jan 1, 2014

By Xing Yang, Zhen Peng, Guangwen Zhang, Haifeng Wang, Yaqun He

"Triboelectric separation of ilmenite ore based on the tribocharge differences between ilmenite and gangue minerals was conducted in this study. Triboelectric characteristics of ilmenite and its associated minerals were studied using polyvinyl chloride (PVC), pentatricopeptide repeats (PPR), copper, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), stainless steel (SS), teflon and quartz glass (QG) tribochargers in lab triboelectric unit. Results demonstrated that the ilmenite particles tribocharged positively while gangue minerals tribocharged negatively using PVC as tribocharger. The particle size also has a significant effect on tribocharge, and the -0.125+0.074 mm is the optimal size fraction of triboelectric separation. Charge-mass ratios of minerals increase with the increases of tribocharging length, but the increasing rate gradually reduce. At 1.5 m tribocharging length, charge-mass ratios of ilmenite, quartz, feldspar and mica are up to 6.07 nC/g, -6.05 nC/g, -4.30 nC/g and -4.56 nC/g, respectively. Based on the triboelectric characteristics of each mineral, triboelectric separation of ilmenite was conducted, and the grade of ilmenite ore increased from 15.47% to 28.40%. INTRODUCTION As a transition metal titanium plays an irreplaceable role in medical, aerospace and materials due to its light weight, high strength and corrosion resistance. Pure titanium dioxide is an excellent white pigment and is widely applied in industries of paint and textile. Ilmenite is the main raw material for titanium industry. For the beneficiation of ilmenite, series methods have been proposed, such as the application of dry magnetic and wet gravity separations to separate the ilmenite from the zircon and rutile. Electrostatic separation is extensively used in the beneficiation of heavy mineral sands for the recovery of rutile, zircon and ilmenite while flotation is used to separate fine ilmenite (Mehdilo et al., 2014; Fan et al., 2014). Compared with flotation and gravity separation, electrostatic separation does not consume water, and native properties of materials will not be changed and energy consumption will be reduced (Wang et al., 2014). Thus, the wide application of electrostatic separation and other dry separation methods is a trend in separation and purification industry, especially in water-scarce areas."

Jan 1, 2018

By P. Yu, L. X. Liu

"A mechanistic model for tumbling mills was developed during PhD studies at the JKMRC. The concept was presented at the IMPC of 2014, followed by progress in a sub-process of the model presented at the IMPC of 2016. Additionally, a number of papers on the sub-models and breakage function have been published. This paper provides a consolidated summary of the outcomes and status of the model. The overall model structure is presented along with the sub-models such as appearance functions, breakage rate functions, energy distribution, transport, and multicomponent grinding interaction model. The strengths and capabilities of the model structure as achieved to date are presented. The gaps in knowledge and sub-processes are also presented, providing a guide to the areas that require further research and development. It is proposed that the approach developed in this paper provides a structure that can accommodate future mechanistic, dynamic mill model evolution that can incorporate the latest research outcomes and provide a platform to test modelling improvements. This can assist in substantially improving the predictive mill modelling capability in the industry, the importance of which should not be underestimated for this workhorse of mineral processing.INTRODUCTION Grinding is almost the largest single energy-consuming process in the mineral processing industry, which was estimated that about 0.2% of global, and 1.3% of Australia’s electricity is consumed by comminution of gold and copper ores (Ballantyne and Powell, 2014). Although there are some relatively new grinding mills, such as stirred mills, vibrating mills and HPGRs (High-Pressure Grinding Rolls), etc., tumbling mills, as the traditional grinding facilities, are more extensively used."

Jan 1, 2018

By S. M. Saghaeian

The studies on the product finer than 12 mm due to crushing and sizing plant of Gol-e-Gohar Iron Ore mine showed which this material contains significant amount of valuable iron minerals. Based on the carried out experimental studies on representative samples of fine hematite iron ore, a processing flow sheet was designed to upgrade iron content. This plant is known as first hematite iron ore enrichment plant in Iran which the dry medium intensity magnetic separators (with magnetic field intensity 4500 gauss and high gradient) has been used. The main objective of the plant is production of high iron product with iron content more than 61% and weight recovery more than 55% from the feed with iron content of 54%. In this plant, at first material are screened by a single deck screen (6mm), then oversize particles is separated at one stage by magnetic separator, while undersize ones at two stages. Based on the results of experimental tests, a final high iron product with iron content of 62.4% and weight recovery 63.9% can be achieved. It should mention which the iron content can be enhanced through increasing the speed of magnetic separators especially at the part of separation of finer iron ore.

Jan 1, 2014

By H. Palza, C. Ihle, S. Contreras

"Processing of minerals, particularly treatment of tailings, has been increasingly challenged by the presence of clays in the feed of thickeners. This occurrence is expected to become increasingly important given the nature of ore deposits currently being exploited and those that have been recently discovered. In sedimentation operations (solid-liquid separation), industrial flocculants often fail to coagulate clay-containing fines, generating supernatants with high levels of turbidity, thus implying operational problems. Recently, it has been reported that graphene oxide (GO), a graphite derivative with high oxygen-containing groups, could enhance the flocculation of clay systems, due to the interaction between clays and GO functional groups. In the present work, we investigated the effect of doping industrial flocculants (commercial polyacrylamide) with GO on the floculation of kaolinite suspensions in a solid-liquid separation stage. Separation performance was evaluated by studying flocculation kinetics using a focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) instrument, in a set of batch tests. A statistical analysis of the flocculation kinetics and floc population distribution was further carried out. Our results suggest the existence of a synergistic effect between the studied flocculants and GO. This effect is observed as a decrease of clay fine contents in the supernatant, thus improving solid-liquid separation eficiency for high clay containing tailings. INTRODUCTION Copper, given its mechanical, physical and chemical characteristics, is a critical material for the progress of society and so has been from early stages of mankind. Demand for this metal has increased due to the growth of cities and the technological explosion, leading to increase current mining production and reinforce the efforts in exploration for new deposits (Elshkaki et al. 2016). As copper-rich deposits are being depleted, it has been necessary to develop proper technology to mine deposits of lower grades and more complex mineralogies, keeping in mind that the economic window that allows the exploitation of them is reduced by the increase on operating costs (Crowson 2012 and Northey et al. 2014). High clay bearing minerals are found in many of those low-grade copper deposits, and they induce problems in all stages of the mineral processing route (Taner and Onen 2016). Particularly, in the solid-liquid separation stage, the flocculation process fails to remove the clay fraction from suspension and it leads to operational issues such as filter damage, overconsumption of reagents and the need to add an extra clarifying step for the recovered process water. Those problematics pose an interesting challenge."

Jan 1, 2018

By M. R. Tavakoli Mohammadi

Novel solvent extraction technologies in recent decades have made attempts to show the problems in applying this method for dilute solutions and find appropriate solutions to overcome them. Improving the equipments performance used in this method for dilute solutions, cause development of usable resources and reduction of operational costs. Furthermore, appropriate conditions provide for using dilute solutions produced in various industries as a new source of valuable elements. Thus, this proposal can be a very good solution for treatment of these solutions and reduce the environmental impacts associated with them. The purpose of this study is to introduce a new method of Column Floto Extraction (CFE), which has been invented in this regard. In this method, using spargers similar to Jameson cell downcomer in floatation process, the organic phase bubble dispersion has been used instead of its drop dispersion in aqueous phase for the two-phase mixture operation. This operation mode has caused a higher extraction percentage of solute in high aqueous to organic ratios due to enhancement of contact area. In this study, in addition to explaining the advantages and features of this method, we have dealt with its design and performance mode.

Sep 1, 2012

By M. M. Fan

In Florida?s phosphate industrial practice, the most favorable upper size limit of froth flotation is 1.18 mm which corresponds to particle weight of about 2.8 mg. Conventional froth flotation is not efficient in upgrading coarse particles (+0.425-1.18 mm). A limited number of studies have been devoted to understanding and improving coarse particle flotation. We have shown that the coarse particle flotation performance can be significantly improved by the presence of picobubbles generated by hydrodynamic cavitation. In this study, the size of picobubbles produced under certain hydrodynamic conditions was measured by a laser particle size analyzer. A size-by-size flotation performance analysis of coarse phosphate froth flotation in the presence of picobubbles is conducted in terms of flotation kinetics, selectivity and recovery. It was found that picobubbles doubled the flota-tion rate, increased the P2O5 recovery more significantly for +0.85-1.18 mm particles than +0.425- 0.6 mm and +0.60-0.85 mm particles. At a given acid insolubles (A.I.) rejection, the presence of picobubbles increased the P2O5 recovery by up to about 25%.

Jan 1, 2014

By Di Liu, Yongjun Peng

"It was identified that clay minerals adversely affect fine coal flotation through slime coatings. In the study, it was interesting to find that an anionic polymer dispersant, lignosulfonate, successfully mitigated the negative effect of clay minerals in coal flotation using fresh water, but in saline water, it exacerbated coal flotation.In order to understand the mechanisms underpinning the different behaviour of lignosulfonate in coal flotation using fresh and saline water, the adsorption isotherm, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements were conducted in this study. While DLS monitored the molecular conformation change (swelling or shrinking) of the polymer in fresh and saline water, adsorption isotherms enabled polymer adsorbed amount on clay and coal mineral surfaces to be determined. It was found that lignosulfonate adsorbed on the coal and clay mineral surfaces providing effective electrostatic repulsions and resulting in a mitigation of clay minerals from coal surfaces in deionised water. In the presence of saline water, however, polymer molecular conformation changed. Polymer molecules were compressed and adsorbed in form of aggregates. The adsorption amount of lignosulfonate on clay minerals increased in saline water. A low dosage of lignosulfonate could not provide sufficient electrosteric repulsion to disperse clay minerals. Moreover, the high adsorption amount of the polymer on coal and clay surfaces led to a more hydrophilic coal surface, and coal flotation was therefore depressed in saline water. This study provides a new insight into understanding the role of anionic polymeric dispersants in mineral flotation using different quality water."

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Kelebek, M. Davidson

"Flotation tests were conducted on a mixed copper ore sample containing bornite and malachite with trace quantity of other secondary copper minerals. The bornite component was very floatable, in sharp contrast to poor flotation characteristics of other copper minerals. A Box-Behnken experimental design methodology was used to study effects of three main reagents, namely potassium amyl xanthate (PAX), hydroxamate (Cytec 6494) and diethylenetriamine (DETA). Pine oil, as a frother, was used at a fixed concentration. Three main models constructed using a statistical software included malachite recovery, overall copper recovery, and copper grade. Bornite recovery was not modelled as its recovery was consistently over 99 % in the presence of hydroxamate and PAX. In each model, the hydroxamate dosage was the dominant parameter (at 95% significance level) determining the recovery of main components including that of gangue, which manifested itself by lowering the copper grade of the concentrate. In comparison, PAX was effective only at 90% significance level. DETA did not affect the overall recovery of copper or malachite significantly, but appeared to cause a significant decline in the concentrate grade, especially when used simultaneously with hydroxamate. Various quadratic models developed for the flotation system investigated are presented."

Jan 1, 2014