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By M. E. Holuszko

This paper reports the results of induction time measurements carried out on the products of film flotation of galena and sphalerite particles from three different size fractions (38~75µm; 75~150µm; 150~212µm). As expected, the tailings (sinking fraction) from film flotation at any particular surface tension, had always longer induction times than the concentrates (floating fraction), for both minerals. The difference between the induction times of film flotation concentrate and tailings could be as little as 2.5 ms and 5 ms, and as large as 6 ms and 10 ms. These differences can be related to the different hydrophobic characteristics of these fractions, as expressed by (?c) and composition of the particular film flotation product. In addition, the induction times of the larger particle size fraction were shown to be longer than for the corresponding smaller particle size fraction, even though the average ?c(degree of hydro-phobicity) of these fractions appears to be very similar. Desliming, Cu activation and collector addition to the sphalerite samples was shown to decrease the induction time values significantly.

Jan 1, 2014

By Zhangm Zeqiang, Manman Lu, Hanquan Zhang, Hong Yu, Jintao Fu

"Pelletizing is an important technique in the ironmaking industry. Artificial and natural magnetites are materials that are widely utilized in the iron ore pelletizing process. In this work, the pelletizing characteristics of these two types of magnetite have been investigated in detail. The obtained results shown that in contrast to natural magnetite, the artificial magnetite concentrate exhibits stronger hydrophilicity, lower electronegativity, larger specific surface area, and rougher surface. In addition, the green pellets produced from the artificial magnetite concentrate are characterized by a higher compressive strength as compared to that of the pellets obtained from the natural magnetite concentrate. However, the shock temperature of the artificial magnetite pellets around 255 C is significantly lower than the threshold specified by the industry. The balling characteristics of the material obtained by mixing 20% of the artificial magnetite concentrate with 80% of the natural magnetite concentrate are considerably improved with respect to those of the individual components.INTRODUCTION Pelletization is an essential process of the ironmaking industry in China. Since the pellets produced from iron ore exhibit high mechanical strength, good particle granularity, and uniform shapes, pelletizing high-grade iron ores with good metallurgical reducibility can lower the coke ratio, improve their technico-economic index, and reduce the cost of processing pig iron in blast furnaces[1, 2]. Presently, high-grade magnetite is a material utilized for pelletizing various iron ores across the globe. However, its natural deposits have been depleting rapidly in recent years; as a result[3], China’s dependence on the foreign high-grade iron ores exceeded 70% in 2009 and reached the level of 87% in 2016. Hence, possible methods for the efficient cultivation of limonite, siderite, hematite, and other refractory minerals that correspond to low-grade, finely sized, inhomogeneous, and scattered iron ores have attracted significant attention [4, 5]. In particular, magnetization reduction roasting and magnetic separation techniques, which are widely utilized for obtaining high-grade artificial magnetite, represent effective ways of processing iron ores that can alleviate the scarcity of natural magnetite resources [6, 7]. The artificial magnetite produced by magnetization reduction roasting exhibits different characteristics as compared with those of natural magnetite (including the degree of hydrophilicity, surface potential, specific surface area, and other surface physicochemical properties[8-11], which significantly affect its pelletizing behavior. In this work, the surface characteristics of artificial and natural magnetites are investigated in detail, and their effect on their pelletizing properties (such as green ball strength, heat stability, and pelletization rate) are examined."

Jan 1, 2018

By M. Mirnezami

Pentlandite samples were obtained as Ni concentrate from three Canadian plants and one specimen sample from Ward?s Scientific Establishment. The samples were upgraded using gravity and magnetic separation techniques. Nickel concentration was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Microprobe analysis identified a range in Co and Cu lattice substitutions. All samples exhibited similar zeta potential-pH trend with isoelectric points from 2 to 3, and similar responses to copper activation and addition of xanthate. The similar trends indicate that the variations in lattice substitution identified have no significant effect on electrokinetic properties; that is, samples from any source likely yield results that can be generalized.

Sep 1, 2012

By A. Muhammad, A. Abdelaal, M. EL Salmawy

"Energy is vital for economic growth and sustainable development. Greater efforts are being devoted to developing unconventional energy resources such as oil shale as an alternative promising source of oil or solid fuel supplement. The main object of this contribution is to determine the upgrade potential of El-Nakheil oil shale using froth flotation. Samples were prepared by comminution followed by sieving into different size fractions. The flotation behavior of the material and extent of cleaning was studied with respect to nonionic and ionic collectors of anionic and cationic types. It was found that the organic rich portions could not be rendered sufficiently hydrophobic by the used collectors and selectivity towards surfactant was very low."

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Vimalnath

The bioremediation capability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells was investigated for the biosorption of lead ions from aqueous solution. The various parameters such as pH, kinetics, biomass loading and concentration of lead affecting the biosorption process were studied. Complete bio removal of lead could be achieved for an initial concentration of 12.4 mg/L at pH 6.2, corresponding to typical industrial effluents. The biosorption isotherm followed Langmuirian behavior and the Gibbs free energy (?G) was determined to be-30.8 kJ/mole, indicative of chemisorption between the functional groups of the bacterial surface and lead. The biosorption kinetics adhered to a pseudo-second order model. The possible mechanisms of interaction of lead with the bacterial cells are discussed. A carbon paste electrode with a coating of biomass was developed for lead ion detection in aqueous solution using cyclic voltammetric technique. Concentrations of lead up to 5x10-5 M could be successfully detected using cyclic voltammetry, which could be improved to a detection limit of 1x10-8 M adopting differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, bioremediation, lead, voltammetry

Sep 1, 2012

High flotation of iron sulfide minerals at high pH values in copper ores is mainly due to the activation of these minerals by copper species dissolved from copper sulfide minerals during grinding. Several methods have been tested to reduce this copper activation during grinding and therefore to depress iron sulfide flotation. They include grinding the minerals at high pH values or with a less reactive medium such as high chrome, and addition of a thiol collector or copper complexant during grinding. The efficacy of these methods in the flotation of a copper ore was tested against more common methods of depression of iron sulfide flotation. The mechanism of iron sulfide depression in these methods was also investigated.

Jan 1, 2014

By V. Sovmen

The gold-ore Olympiada deposit is located within the Yenissei range (Krasnoyarsk Region, Russia). Primary sulphides ores are metasomatic changed rocks, mica-calcite-quartz structure with impurity amphiboles, chlorites, carbon, the rare thin grains of sulfides (up to 3%~5%) and native gold. The structures of ores are fine-grained, prevailing texture of ores - interspersed, vein-interspersed, band-interspersed, veinlet. The most important minerals in the deposit are: gold, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, antimonite, Sb-sulphosalt, quartz, muscovite, calcite, siderite, titanium minerals, chlorite and minor sulfides like chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, etc. A common problem in mineralogical studies applied to mineral processing (concentration, cyanidation, etc.) is the characterization of gold in ores and technological products. This paper discusses the behavior of minerals during technological process at operating factory in Olympiada Mine and gold distribution in the ores and products. For the mineralogical characterization of minerals ? combination of analytical techniques was used. Gold is encountered in the primary ores as free grains among rocks, growth with sulfides and nonmetallic minerals, inclusions in sulfides, sulphosalt, and nonmetallic minerals. The gold-sulphide ores of Olympiada deposit can be quite complicated for enrichment. With the purpose to increase the extraction of metal from concentrates by liberating the dispersed gold, forming inclusions in sul-fides, there is used technology of biooxidation of flotation concentrates in Olympiada Mine. Gold and the basic ore-forming minerals in the ores feed, sulphidic concentrates, biocakes, tailings of concentrates of flotation and products of hydrometallurgical leaching have been studied in the mineralogical research. During researches it is established that pyrrhotite was completely oxidized while arsenopyrite was oxidized almost completely in the bacterial oxidation process. Pyrite and antimony minerals behave similarly and were oxidized only partially. The main oxyhydroxides in the bacterial oxida-tion process are goethite, limonite and jarosite. The results of mineralogical researches showed reasons of losses of gold during hydrometallurgical enrichment.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Q. Zhu

Coal Water Mixtures (CWMs) are densed suspensions of coal particles in water. Viscosity is one of the most important rheological properties of CWMs and it is desired to be as low as possible. The slurry viscosity was influenced significantly by additive formation, the particle size distribution and the ash content of the coal. However, the influence of dispersants is most obvious. At present, there are several kinds of dispersants such as polymeric styrene sulfuric sodium, lignin sulfonate, humate, polycarboxy salt, ethylene epoxide surfactant. In this paper, a newly synthesized CWM dispersant has been reported, which is an efficient anionic surfactants of polycarboxylic acid type. The synthesis process includes three steps. At the beginning, the polyglycol acetate ester has been performed by acetic acid and polyethylene glycol (PEO) on the condition of acetic-acid/PEO ratio 1:1.1, at 368~373K for 30 minutes. Then the macro-monomer is prepared through the esterification of 85.71% acrylic and 14.29% polyglycol acetate ester, at 368~373K for 10 minutes. After that, the polycarboxylic acid CWM dispersant is polymerized using proper proportion macro-monomer, acrylic (AA) and sulfonic styrol sodium, at 368~373K for 1 hour. This new dispersants are used in the coal water mixtures formulation. Four kinds of coal used in the experiment are Shuang Yashan, Tunliu, Luning, Changcun samples. ? The highest concentration for shuanyashan coal is 70% when the dosage of dispersant is 0.4%, and the content of -200 meshes particles is 75.53%. As the dosage of dispersant de-creases to 0.25%, the Shangyashan CWM concentration is 67%. ? For Tunliu coal CWM concentrations are in the range of 76% to 75% when dosage of the dispersant changes from 0.4% to 0.25% at the same particle size distribution of 83.5% minus 200 meshes. ? The highest concentration for Luning coal is 69% when dosage of the dispersant is 0.4%, and the content of -200 meshes particles is 88.86%. ? For Changcun sample, the coal concentration of CWM is 73%~75% when dosage range of the dispersant is 0.35%~0.5%. The experiments show that the synthesied dispersant is quite promising for some coals CWM preparation, but a little bit coal-dependent. The Proximate and Ultimate analysis, surface characteristic measurement have been made to investigate the interactions between coal and additives.

Jan 1, 2014

By J. Faitli

The Lake Balaton is the biggest and for many reasons the most important lake in Hungary. To preserve its healthy nature it is necessary to remove the accumulated mud time to time, similarly to the many living waters, lakes and rivers everywhere. Typical existing technologies (mechanical, hydraulic) require large depositional areas, where the removed slurry and mud is dewatered through very long time. One problem is the non existence of an economical mud thickening technology. Another major problem is that current methods remove the sand fraction with the mud as well. Many times sand has to be complemented from outer sources to endanger the natural balance of the living water. By the financial support of the NKFP 3A/068/2004 Hungarian Research Project our consortium has been looking for the solution to the above mentioned problems. The original ideas of the project were: 1. Sand should be separated and returned to the water by hydrocyclon; 2. New mud thickener should be developed based on the principle that vibrating rods can force settling and packing of mud particles. The work was started by fundamental research with different samples from Lake Balaton and River Bodrog. An automated settling column (45L) has been built for the investigation of the effect of vibrating rods on the settling behavior of suspensions. An optical sensor has been developed by with the settling curve (height of settling slurry as function of time) can be automatically measured. Different vibrating methods and parameters have been tested by the application of a linear motor and mechanical eccentric drive. On the basis of the fundamental research a new thickener, called the rod ? lamella thickener has been developed and an industrial size (50m3/h) mud removing technology has been built. Main parts of the technology are the traditional dredging barge and the thickening technology. The thickening and sand separation technology is tugged by the dredging ship. Its main elements are the homogenization tank, slurry pump, hydrocyclon and the rod ? lamella thickener. In this unit lamellas carry out pre-thickening, then vibrating rods further increase the concentration. The thickened mud is transported out by a screw - of which revolution number is precisely controlled - against a spring supported valve. Paper reports about the design, building, water probe and on-site tests of this mud removing technology. Two new patents had been presented, one is about the rod ? lamella thickener and the other is about the mud removing technology with sand separation.

Jan 1, 2014

By Susanna G. de Jager, Francis W. Petersen

"The aim of the project was to develop a methodology applicable to different South African coal types to be able to predict with a high degree of certainty what kind of reagent will be suitable for flotation of a certain coal type.The study included 5 coal samples from different collieries and included Highveld seam 3 and 4 coal (as one sample), Waterberg coal (zone 10 -11), Highveld seam 5 upper coal and Witbank seam 2 and seam 4 coal. Seam 3 and 4 (mixture) coal, Waterberg and the seam 5 upper coal were all found to be vitrinite rich coals. The coal characterisation study included petrographic analysis, proximate analysis, float-sink analysis, oxygen-containing functional groups, surface extraction, flotation release analysis and contact angle measurements.The flotation tests showed that the best reagents to float all of the coal samples studied are iso-decanol and dodecene. These reagents produced flotation products that are near to the release curve. Statistical relationship for predicting ash content and yield that can be expected for a certain coal type and selected collector was obtained. From the relationship, the accuracy of the yield is above 95% (p-value below 0.05) with a linear regression of 0.9289. The accuracy of the ash is slightly lower with a linear regression of 0.7841 but also above 95%."

Jan 1, 2003

By Francisca San Martín, Martin Rudolph, Willy Kracht, Tomás Vargas

It has been shown that bacteria Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans can be used to depress pyrite in seawater flotation at natural pH, which opens the possibility for its use as an alternative to lime to depress pyrite in copper sulfide flotation. In order to have a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in pyrite depression with A. ferrooxidans, an exploratory experimental campaign was carried out, including attachment density and contact angle measurements, and the effect of adding bacteria before or after collector. Biodepression of pyrite improves when increasing pH from 3 to 8, with a decrease in recovery from 92% to 36%. This increase in depressing capability is accompanied by an increase in attachment density, from 2.58×108 bacteria/g to 1.99×109 bacteria/g at pH 3 and 8, respectively, suggesting that the mechanism of depression is related to the attachment of bacteria to the pyrite surface. It was observed that the conditioning sequence with collector and bacteria influences the biodepression capacity of A. ferrooxidans. Having as a reference a value of pyrite recovery equal to 97%, when using only xanthate in seawater flotation at pH 8, the effect of both conditioning with bacteria-followed-by-xanthate and xanthate-followed-by-bacteria were assessed. When bacteria were added before the collector, the recovery of pyrite decreased to 36%. On the other hand, when bacteria were added after collector, the recovery was 64%, showing that biodepression of pyrite with Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is more efficient when the conditioning is carried out first with bacteria. The contact angle values show that there is little effect of the second component added to the system, i.e., if pyrite is first conditioned with bacteria, the contact angle does not change significantly once the xanthate is added (bacteria-followed-by-xanthate). The same was observed when the conditioning sequence was xanthate-followed-by-bacteria.

Jan 1, 2018

By B. McFadzean, P. E. Ngoepe, P. P. Mkhonto

"The theoretical technique of computational modeling and the experimental determination of the enthalpy of adsorption of a ligand molecule onto a mineral surface deliver the same output parameters and, therefore, complement each other in investigating the affinity of different ligand types for mineral surfaces.This study ran parallel experimental tests and computational calculations to determine the enthalpy of adsorption of a series of increasing chain length xanthates onto a pyrite surface. The outcomes showed that, while the absolute energy values were different, the trends were similar. Both computational and experimental approaches showed that the extent of the interaction of the xanthate molecule increases with increasing carbon chain length. The computational values were larger than the experimental values, which could be explained, in part, by the addition of water to the computational system, which resulted in a decrease in the heat of adsorption on the (100) surface, compared to the adsorption of the collector in a vacuum. The computational method showed that, in the case of the pyrite (100) surface, the most exothermic reaction was obtained when the two xanthate sulfur atoms bridged two pyrite 5-coordinated iron atoms. The (111) surface was found to be more reactive and different adsorption mechanisms were predicted for each of the C2, C3, C4 and C5 chain length xanthates.The experimentally determined exothermic increase in heat of adsorption for the addition of each CH2 group was found to be -8.17 kJ/mol. The contribution of the thiol head group was -34.9 kJ/mol. Previous studies on self-assembled monolayers have shown that these values are compatible with lateral interactions between CH2 groups and the exclusion of water. This study provides a rigorous experimental and computational approach which is intended to afford confidence in modelled data for the screening of new ligands for flotation processes.INTRODUCTIONComputational modelling is a fast and cost-effective method of screening collector molecules for the efficacy of their adsorption onto mineral surfaces. However, it is desirable to measure the computational outputs against experimental outputs to check for congruency. Computational modelling and experimental microcalorimetry both deliver the same output parameter: the energy of adsorption of the molecule onto the solid surface. These techniques are therefore ideally suited to complement one another in investigating the affinity of the interaction between collector molecules and mineral surfaces."

Jan 1, 2018

By I. Silin, H. Wotruba, J. Huben, A. Ognyanova

"With increasing shortage of raw materials, the beneficiation of ultra-fine ores will play a larger role in the near future. Many established process technologies do not yield satisfactory separation results for ultra-fine materials. Without selectivity, high-grade concentrates cannot be produced. The material at hand is a taconite which had to be ground to d(90) = 25 µm to guarantee liberation of the iron oxides. The comminution was done by High Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) and resulted in smooth surfaces and clear grain boundaries. This is an indication of selective grinding and mineral liberation. Further processing steps included selective desliming, magnetic separation as well as reverse flotation. INTRODUCTION During the last centuries, the processing of iron ores became increasingly important. The coarse-grained, so-called lump ores that are ready for direct usage in blast furnaces without further processing are becoming gradually less abundant. The processing of ultra-fine-grained ores, which in addition require a complex ore beneficiation due to the composition of the material, will progressively gain relevance with increasing resource shortages in the future (Arvidson, 2013). The term “ultra-fine” does not hold a precise definition in mineral processing. In this paper, “ultra-fine-grained” ores are defined by the required grind size for full liberation smaller than 20 µm. Many established mineral processing technologies do not yield satisfactory separation results for ultra-fine materials. Thus, they are limited in their application to produce high-grade concentrates suitable for sintering and pelletizing for direct reduction processes. The production of a high-grade iron concentrate (over 68% Fe) with low silica content (under 2.5% SiO2) is possible from both magnetite and hematite containing ore. In addition to the mineral processing technologies (magnetic and gravity separation, flotation), technologies for the liberation of fine-grained iron ores need to be developed and improved. In contrast to the conventional wet grinding circuit by means of tumbling mills, several future trends in dry and wet grinding and regrinding are already in use. These include technologies such as vibration mills (Palla®Mill), stirred media mills (Vertimill®), vertical roller mills (Loesche) and high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) (Jankovic, 2015). This study preliminary investigated the mineral processing of a low-grade, ultra-fine-grained, complex iron ore in a laboratory scale after dry grinding by HPGR to 90% < 25 µm without consideration of the grinding, milling, energy and classification cost."

Jan 1, 2018

By A. Erdem

In this study, approximately 3 tons of coal sample taken from thickener entrance was prepared by mineral processing techniques and cleaned by gravity methods. The samples were classified to 5 size fractions by wet screening. The size fractions of +1mm and -1 +0.500 mm were chosen for direct consumption or cleaning by spirals. The studies by Multi Gravity Separator (MGS) were carried out with the -0.500 +0.280 mm and -0.280 +0.020 mm size fractions where the -0.020 mm fraction does not used in the experiments. The clean coal fractions of +1 mm and -1 +0.500 mm obtained by classification were subjected to lower calorific value (LCV), ash and total sulphur analyses. The results were 4168-4946 kcal/kg (on dry basis), 31.01-38.54 % ash and 4-4.27 % total sulphur content respectively. The results of the clean coal concentrated by MGS experiments in -0.500 +0.280 mm fraction was found 5918 kcal/kg LCV, 19.82 % ash content and 80.47 % combustible recovery. The results for the -0.280 +0.020mm fraction were 6004 kcal/kg LCV, 19.19 % ash content, 80.47 % combustible recovery respectively. With reference to the above experimental results, pre-economic evaluation studies were completed and decided to construct an additional unit to the plant. Capacity of the constructed unit is 75.000 t/y which corresponds $ 2.600.000 income in a year. General Directorate of Turkish Coal Enterprises concluded to apply this project to the other coal washing plants in the country due to the successful results of this study and laboratory studies has been going on by MTA currently. Keywords: coal tailings, mgs, recovery, washery, pre-economic evaluation

Sep 1, 2012

By Peter Kondos

The need for a sustainable development of ore deposits makes it imperative to be innovative and mindful in creating an economically and environmentally viable operation, while maintaining a good working relationship with the various stakeholders involved in developing and operating a large and complex mining project. This is becoming immensely important as gold ore deposits are becoming more mineralogically complex along with lower grades presenting both metallurgical and environmental challenges that need to be addressed in mitigating risks and improving project economics. This paper presents Barrick?s approach to development of strategic technologies for our long-term sustainable growth through conversion of valuable resources into reserves for both our green-field development projects and the expansion of our existing mining operations. Some of the key strategic solutions, including mineral processing, metallurgical and energy technologies, developed by Barrick and their impact on some of our complex gold and copper-gold ores will also be discussed in this paper. Keywords: gold ores, copper-gold ores, processing, breakthrough technologies

Sep 1, 2012

By L. E. Veki, S. M. Luukkanen, J. P. Karvonen, J. O. Leppinen

Today there is a consensus that xanthate adsorption on sulfide minerals is primarily controlled by redox reactions occurring at specific potentials on these semi-conductive minerals. Consequently, it is possible to control xanthate adsorption by controlling electrochemical conditions in the system by using oxidizing and reducing agents. The scope of this study was to investigate the possibilities to increase the selectivity of Cu-Fe-Zn ore flotation by applying electrochemical control in the conditioning of the flotation feed. In this work, mild steel grinding in a nitrogen atmosphere was used as the basis to provide a negative starting potential and minimize the amount of oxidation products on sulfide mineral surfaces. To study how different potential levels affect flotation results, a controlled conditioning procedure was utilized maintaining potential at a desired level by titrating the pulp with air. Xanthate adsorption kinetics during conditioning was examined by taking pulp samples for spectrophotometric analysis and laboratory flotation tests were conducted for samples that underwent the controlled conditioning procedure in the potential range of -200mV to +200mV vs. SHE. A clear correlation was detected between chalcopyrite recovery and the potential during controlled conditioning indicating that there was a constant increase in chalcopyrite recovery when the potential was shifted to more anodic values. It is possible that utilizing potential control in the conditioning stage, a smelter grade copper concentrate can be achieved directly in rougher flotation without cleaning stages. Conditioning in favorable conditions had significant positive effects on flotation selectivity of chalcopyrite. The improvement in copper concentrate grade being predominantly caused by the depression of pyrite. By applying the controlled conditioning procedure pyrite recovery in rougher flotation was reduced even low as under 1%, while in the tests without controlled conditioning, pyrite recovery varied between 7.5 – 65.7%. The result of this work indicate that affecting collector adsorption by electrochemical control in the conditioning stage can provide significant improvement in sulfide mineral flotation and industrial applications could lead to decreased chemical consumption, reduced equipment and maintenance costs.

Jan 1, 2018

By M. Pelser, C Aldrich

"The presence of calcium and magnesium in the hydrometallurgical processing of base metals, results in a number of process difficulties. These problems range from the contamination of the final product (where the final product is a precipitate) to high energy consumptions and large bleed streams during electrowinning. Calcium poses an additional problem in sulphate solutions owing to the low solubility of its sulphate salts. This can easily lead to a process stream that is supersaturated with calcium sulphate, resulting in unwanted solids formation within the process equipment.Several processes are reviewed for the control of calcium and magnesium. Of these, fluoride precipitation was selected for experimental investigation. This method involves the addition of a soluble fluoride to precipitate CaF2 and MgF2. The experiments showed high selectivity for calcium and magnesium over the base metals. The experiments also showed magnesium precipitation to dominate for calcium to magnesium molar ratios greater than 1:3.To avoid the domination of magnesium precipitation, a flow sheet is proposed whereby only a portion of the base metal stream is subjected to fluoride precipitation. For the precipitation, a 10% excess of ammonium fluoride is used to remove the maximum amount of calcium and magnesium. After precipitation and solid-liquid separation the split-stream is returned to reduce the overall calcium and magnesium concentration of the base metal stream."

Jan 1, 2003

By J. Y. Tian

In view of the fact that many domestic iron ore-dressing plant applying flotation cells in the re-verse flotation, to improve the technical level of magnetite reverse flotation, we apply such a technological process of one stage rougher and two stages scavenger flotation column respectively. The middling from the two stage scavenger process are returned to magnetic separation for condensing. By contrast, the technological process of one stage rougher and one stage cleaning flotation cells is made up of by multi-magnetic separation and magnetic middling regrinding separations. It has been proved that the flotation column we offer can simplify the technological process structure, obtain advanced technical indexes, run the system smoothly, reduce energy consumption, and be environ-mental friendly.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. Q. Yang

Jig is a kind of conventional and old gravity concentration equipment, which is mainly used in the preconcentration of medium particle fractions of low-grade nonferrous metal ore. In the past ten years, studies on jigs have made a great progress on separation of coarse and fine particle fractions. At the same time, pneumatic jigs have been widely used in processing of nonferrous metal ore. In this paper, pilot test study and commercial operation for several kinds of jigs used in Dachang con-centrator has been introduced. Dachang mining area of GuangXi province is rich in mineral resources, where many minerals exhibit various complex properties. Many elements such as Sn, Pb, Sb, Zn, S, As, Cu, In, Ag, Gd, Ag, Ga, etc, were found in the run-of-mine ore (ROM). At present, Dachang concentrator produces tin concentrate, lead-antimony concentrate and zinc concentrate. Other valuable elements get enriched and recovered in above concentrates. Dachang Mine with a mining operation history more than sixty years will end its mission on the rich ore resource exploitation. At present, low grade ores are porcessed in the concentrator, and the concentrator begins to run at a loss upon processing the low-grade and refractory ore. Heavy medium cyclones were used in the concentrator for processing 20-4mm fraction, Gongge jigs for 4-2mm fraction, and cone concentrator combined with spiral concentrator to discard the tailings of -2mm fractions. In order to minimize overgrinding, table flotation was used to recover some liberated cassiterites in a complex processing technology. Therefore, the concentrator is difficult to manage. Many years studies have shown that heavy medium cyclones and spiral concentra-tors can be replaced by sawtooth shaped wave jigs to discard 50% tailings to improve the grade of feed. And the feed was divided into rich one and poor one to minimize overgrinding of valuable cassiterites with different grinding mills. In this case, the recovery of the valuable minerals can get improved and the flowsheet was simplified. Moreover, the concentrator begins to make profit with reduction of cost. At the same time, pollution in the concentrator gets reduced and the working condition gets improved too. Sawtooth shaped wave jig was used in Changpo concentrator for replacement of cone separators and spiral concentrators to discard the tailings of -4mm fraction, and the yield of discarded tailings got improved from 30% to 50%. Grades of tin, lead and zinc in the tailings are lowered from 0.15%, 0.12%, 0.7% to 0.06%, 0.05%, 0.4% respectively, with a loss reduction of tin, lead and zinc from11%, 9%, 10% to 7.5%, 6%, 5% respectively, corresponding to the increasement of recovery of tin, lead, zinc from 52%, 50%, 55% to 56%, 56%, 62% respectively. Cost of the concentrator for processing one-ton ROM was therefore dropped from RMB155.28 to RMB119.74. Changpo concentrator lost RMB2.5 million in 2003, but it made a profit of RMB0.92 million in 2006 after the innovations. Batac jig was used in Tongkeng concentrator to discard the coarse tailings at 20-4mm, with a discarded yield of 35%, and the grades of valuable minerals got improved with a recovery above 95% for tin, lead-antimony and zinc.

Jan 1, 2014

By E. V. Manlapig, M. C. Harris

"The complexity of the flotation process has made the identification of an appropriate model structure for the predictive simulation of flotation circuits far from obvious. Work performed under the auspices of the AMIRA P9 flotation program has indicated that the metallurgical performance achieved from a flotation cell arises from the interaction of two essentially independent property classes, namely the cell operating conditions and the properties of the cell feed stream. These observations have led to the development of a model structure that associates a constant set of flotation parameters to the streams of the circuit, which are transformed into a flotation response depending on the operating conditions within the flotation cell.A variety of alternative model structures exist within the literature which do not make this distinction between cell and stream flotation properties, and many of these models are in widespread use for flotation optimisation and design studies, both in industry and academia.In this paper, circuit survey and laboratory batch flotation data collected from an industrial flotation circuit are analysed. The data demonstrate that streams in an industrial flotation circuit exhibit varying particle floatability – concentrate streams typically float faster than tailing streams (Figure 1(a)). This floatability, however, is generally conserved around the various units within the flotation process (i.e. the effective floatability of the combined feed and product streams of a unit is equivalent (Figure 1(b)))."

Jan 1, 2003