Mineral column flotation

The actual flotation phenomenon occurs in flotation cells usually arranged in batteries (12) and in industrial plants and individual cells can be any size from a few to 30 m in volume. Column cells have become popular, particularly in the separation of very fine particles in the minerals industry and coUoidal precipitates in environmental appHcations. Such cells can vary from 3 to 9 m in height and have circular or rectangular cross sections of 0.3 to 1.5 m wide. They essentially simulate a number of conventional cells stacked up on top of one another (Fig. 3). Microbubble flotation is a variant of column flotation, where gas bubbles are consistently in the range of 10—50 p.m. 

Miner. Process Extra. Metall. Rev., 11 187-210 Yarar, B., Haydon, B. C., Kitchener, J. A., 1969. Electrochemistry of the galena-diethyldithio carbamate-oxygen flotation system. Trans. Instn. Min. Metall. Sec.C, 78 C181 - C184 Yekeler Meftuni, Sonmez Ibrahim, 1997. Effect of the hydrophobic fraction and particle size in the collectorless column flotation kinetics. Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering, 121(1) 9-13... 

O. D. Chuk, V. Ciribeni, and L. V. Gutierrez, Froth collapse in column flotation a prevention method using froth density estimation and fuzzy expert systems. Minerals Engineering 18(5) (2005). 

Coffin Vemau, L., Column Flotation of Gaspe., 14th Int. Miner. Process. Technol. Toronto,... 

Uses Mineral processing surfactant frother for flotation operations where foam builds up exc. for column flotation Properties Liq. 

Mechanical flotation machines are most commonly used in the mineral industiy, while pneumatic column-type units are gaining popularity in recent years. Surveys by Harris (1976), Young (1982), Bar-beiy (1982), and Mavros (1991) provide a detailed overview of the process-engineering aspec ts of mineral flotation devices in particular and systems in general. 

Nebera, V.P., Rebrikov, D.N. and Kuzmin, V.I., Flotation of secondery mined lead-zine ores in column machines 14th Int. Miner Process Conep. World Wide, Ind. Appl. Miner. Process Technol. Toronto, (1982)... 

This table shows how the physical loss of values into tailings from differential flotation rises steeply as the complexity of the mineral matrix increases. The second column shows a fairly uniform level of unpaid-for values in concentrates for the ores of the Zn-Pb-Ag type. It is much lower for the copper ores as the standard rate to payment for copper in concentrates is substantially higher than it is for zinc. The combined losses (third column) rise to formidable amounts for the more complex ores. 

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