The Use Of Column Flotation To Reduce Silica In Iron Ore Pellets (02617aae-76e9-4cfa-9c18-65b5d1b85815)

The highly competitive nature of the international iron ore market has forced producers to improve the quality of their pellets. The demand for low acid pellets suitable for direct reduction has resulted in an increase in the number of plants utilizing reverse froth flotation for silica reduction. Column flotation is being favoured for this service due to the low capital and operating cost of the equipment, as well as improved metallurgical performance when compared to conventional flotation cells. This paper describes the benefits of column flotation and discusses some important aspects of circuit design.