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By James A. Finch, Xiangzhou Ding, Yue Hua Tan

"The Jameson Cell is one of the choices of flotation machine in coal, base metal processing and other specialist applications. This paper determines the effect on vacuum pressure and bubble size of two design variables, orifice size and downcomer length, and the operating variable air-to-water (AWR) ratio. The main findings are: orifice size and downcomer length impact the vacuum but have limited effect on bubble size; AWR < 1 favours high vacuum, conditions are identified where vacuum is maintained at AWR > 1, and water flowrate has slightly greater impact on bubble size than air flowrate.INTRODUCTIONFroth flotation, the most common technique for mineral separation, has been in use for over a century. The process takes advantage of the difference in wettability of mineral surfaces to achieve the separation of valuable minerals from non-valuable minerals, or gangue. Numerous flotation machines have been invented and patented over the years. The Jameson Cell, invented by Professor Graeme Jameson in the late 1980s, is one successful example. First trialed at Mount Isa Mines (Queensland, Australia), Jameson Cells have been installed at operations around the world for the recovery of fine coal (Mohanty and Honakeri, 1999; Cowburn et al., 2006; Hacifazlioglu and Toroglu, 2007; Uçurum 2009), minerals of copper (Farr 1992; Atkinson et al., 1993; Harbort et al., 1997), lead/zinc (Rohner, 1993; Munro, 2003) and gold (Bennett et al., 2012; Lauder et al., 2003), and in water treatment (Yan and Jameson, 2004), solvent extraction de-oiling (Miller and Readett, 1992; Miller et al., 1997; Harbort et al., 2003; Young et al., 2006), oil sands processing (Neiman et al., 2012), and various food industries (Brenneman, 2014). One of the largest units is the 650 cm diameter separation tank with 24 downcomers installed in an Anglo American operation (Osborne and Euston, 2015). Scale up is relatively straightforward: to increase capacity the number of downcomers is increased with corresponding increase in size of separation tank.The Jameson Cell comprises two main parts: a vertical tube (downcomer) which provides self-aspiration and intense bubble-particles contact, and a (separation) tank where particle-bubble aggregates disengage from the pulp. The intense bubble/slurry mixing in the downcomer with air holdups reaching 60% (Marchese et al., 1992) accelerates particle collection enabling the greatly reduced cell volume compared with mechanical flotation cells and columns. The disengagement of the particle-loaded bubbles from the slurry in the separation tank is usually aided by addition of washwater."

Jan 1, 2018

By Y. H. Tang, H. Y. Zhang

"Tailings from lead-zinc mine contain plenty of dolomite and low-grade fine-grained barite, which is difficult to enrich by mineral processing. Since the density of barite and dolomite has some differences due to the fine dissemination size in a complex sedimentary, the gravity separation tests were conducted with no results obtained. The magnetic separation was conducted to remove the magnetic gangues, and the results were not satisfactory because of the gangue minerals such as limonite and others were low in content. The results of floatation tests showed that the mineral separation of barite and dolomite is quite difficult because that they have similar mineral floatability. Experimental research shows that the good results can be obtained by “desulfurizationbarite floatation” processing with the new depressant TS. The barite concentrate containing BaSO4 91.27%, BaSO4recovery is 70.25% when sodium dodecyl sulfonate serves as a collector and TS as the depressant.INTRODUCTIONBarite is an important mineral material. Often associated with other minerals, it usually needs to be separated by mineral processing in order to meet the application requirements. The main barite beneficiation methods include hand sorting, gravity separation, floatation, magnetic separation, acid leaching, etc. Usually barite associated with oxide ore such as fluorite dolomite, quartz ore etc. are also associated with sulfide ore such as pyrite, sphalerite and galena. The separation between barite and sulfide ore (such as pyrite) is easy. On the other hand, the separation between barite and oxide ore (such as dolomite and fluorite) is very difficult. There are quite a lot of reports on the separation between barite with fluorite dolomite however the separation between barite and dolomite is seldom discussed.The ore properties are quite complex attributable to mineral assemblage containing a large amounts of dolomite. As the density of barite and dolomite has some differences, gravity separation between them is usually easy. The gravity separation tests were conducted with no results obtained due to the fine dissemination size in a complex sedimentary. The magnetic separation was conducted to remove the magnetic gangues, and the results are not satisfactory as the gangue minerals such as limonite and others were low in content. Due to the fine dissemination and intimate association of minerals, and barite and dolomite contain the same group ions of Ba2+, Ca2+ and Mg2+, the results of flotation tests showed that the mineral separation between barite and dolomite by flotation means problematic. Previous studies have been conducted by several institutions but none to date has come up with a satisfactory process in dealing with the deposit. This may be attributable to: high cost of reagents; unsatisfactory performance. Therefore, the key to the flotation separation of barite and dolomite is the application of selective inhibitors. Based on previous test observations and years of extensive research experience in barite processing technology, with the new depressant TS has selectivity inhibition on dolomite developed and used, good results can be obtained by “desulfurization-barite flotation”, which allows barite in the lead-zinc tailings to a comprehensive recovery."

Jan 1, 2018

By Z. Cheng, Y. Han

"For non-sulphide minerals such as oxidized minerals, fluoride minerals, and oxysalt minerals, there are generality in the molecular structure of their floating collectors, and similarity in crystal structure of the minerals. In the paper, adsorbing mechanism of these collectors on the surface of these mineral particles in different pH pulp was investigated by means of Pauling's rules & valence bond theory, Valence-shell electron pair repulsion theory (VSEPR) theory, Crystal and ligand field theory, and quantum chemistry simulation by DMol3 and CASTEP modules of Material Studio software. Besides, the role and status of hydrogen bond in the floating adsorption mechanism were studied emphatically, and the confirmation and characterization of hydrogen bond were explored also based on the test results. What is more, the conclusion “the effect of hydrogen bond can not be overlooked in adsorbing mechanism of flotation collectors on the minerals” and a new viewpoint of multi-polarity collaboration and hydrogen bond coupling were summarized eventually based on analysis of the measurements. Finally, a novel collector 2-Amino-3-Methyl Heptyloxy-Propylamine (AMHP) was developed based on the new viewpoint of molecular structure design, and its collecting performance was exhibited.INTRODUCTIONWhen it comes to the recovery of flotation, it is necessary for researchers to investigate the flotation mechanism of collectors. In traditional theory, when collectors were used to collect minerals, the attractions between collectors and minerals were divided into chemical, electrostatic and physical attractions (Wills, B.A., 2006). Especially, because of the reaction between sulphide minerals and sulphydryl collectors is complex and various mechanism has been proposed (Yoon and Basilio, 1993), when collectors were used to collect non-sulfide minerals, it can be classified into oxyhydryl anionic collectors and cationic collectors. In traditional theory, the adsorption of oxyhydryl anionic collectors were due to water-repulsion, and the adsorption of cationic collectors were due to electrostatic attraction between the polar head of the collector and the charged electrical double layer on the mineral surface (Wills, B.A., 2006)."

Jan 1, 2018

By S. J. Liu

The conventional collector for bauxite mineral is oleic acid, which is highly insoluble and must be used in high dosage in bauxite flotation operations, that is the great drawback of oleic acid in use. A series of hydroxamic acid were synthesized, and their collecting ability to certain minerals in bauxite: diaspore, kaolinite were studied. The collecting power of various reagents to diaspore in an incremental sequence were shown as follows: benzyl hydroxamic acid<amylic hydroxamic ac-id<heptylic hydroxamic acid<oleic acid<octylic hydroxamic acid; while the incremental sequence of the collecting power to kaolinite was like this: benzyl hydroxamic acid<amylic hydroxamic ac-id<heptylic hydroxamic acid<octylic hydroxamic acid<oleic acid. It could be seen that octylic hydroxamic acid had the capability of high collectivity and good selectivity, and octylic hydroxamic acid was chosen to use in the following experiments. Reduced zeta potential showed the adsorption of the anionic collector on the mineral. By the adsorptive capability and IR tests, the adsorption of octylic hydroxamic acid on diaspore was determined to be chemical absorption, which was greater than that of oleic acid, as it was physical absorption. Results of floatation experiments on manually mixed minerals indicated that the collectivity and selectivity of octylic hydroxamic acid were better than oleic acid.

Jan 1, 2014

By I. Y. Titov, Victor D. Samyguin, A. Y. Nikitin

"It is suggested that improvement of separation process efficiency in machines and circuits of selective flotation should be based on application of the principle of technology individualization (PIT). This principle is grounded on the following provisions.The mineral composition of ores is used to establish the correlation between the selective reagent mode and the individual value of hydrodynamic conditions of flotation machines together with individual structure of the process flow diagram. The individuality of all sorts of particles identified by methods of process mineralogy was characterized by their distribution according to the rate of flotation (or spectrum). The spectrum identification is carried out by modeling and by experimental and computational method on the data obtained on various types of laboratory flotation machines.The computer-aided test is used to determine the optimal fraction distribution, which reaches the highest possible level of concentration data. The direction of hydrodynamic factors action on concentration data is estimated based on comparison of design base and experimental spectrum. The improvement of separation efficiency in devices is achieved in special-purpose flotation machines (SFM) the design of which provides optimization of hydrodynamic regime in spatially isolated zones. It is demonstrated that the main parameter of SFM operating mode individualization is the rise rate of bubbles going from the chamber into the froth. During this time the composition of particles optimum for separation is formed on its surface. Additionally, it is necessary to coordinate in the zones the residence time of pulp and foam streams with the air consumption. The improvement of separation efficiency in flotation process flow diagrams may be achieved by making several cascades with SFM installed in them. The individual effective structure of the scheme for a definite ores material composition depends on the ratio of particle varieties in the spectrum and is revealed by modeling."

Jan 1, 2018

By A. Morrison, D. Mesa, P. R. Brito-Parada

"Froth flotation is the most widely used mineral separation technique. It is based on the relative hydrophobicity of valuable and gangue particles. In a flotation tank, two distinct zones can be identified: the pulp and the froth. The pulp is a turbulent region in which hydrophobic valuable particles attach to air bubbles while hydrophilic gangue particles remain in the slurry. As the particle-laden bubbles rise, a mineralised froth zone is formed that overflows as a concentrate. Although the process is more than a hundred years old, there remain many aspects that are not completely understood, particularly for the froth zone. Thus, the rules governing the design of flotation tanks tend to focus on pulp zone parameters, which are largely based on operating data. An example of this is the design and operation of impellers. These tend to be designed paying attention to hydrodynamic phenomena in the pulp zone, but their effect on the froth zone has not been completely addressed. The role of impellers in a flotation tank is to break the air bubbles in order to generate smaller ones and to provide an environment that enables the collision between those bubbles and the particles in the slurry. This usually creates turbulent regimes that can affect the pulp-froth interface, destabilising the lower regions of the froth and affecting the overall performance of the process. Different impeller designs and retrofit modifications have been proposed in the past, addressing some of those issues. However, there is no systematic study of the effect of different impeller designs on the bubble size in the pulp and its links to the stability of the froth. This work tested the impact of an impeller designs combined with the use of a stator on the performance of an 87 litres continuously operated laboratory-scale flotation tank, with a focus on bubble size in the pulp and froth stability. The results showed that the implementation of a stator system decreased bubble size and increased froth stability. That resulted in an increase of mass pull, measured as a proxy of metallurgical recovery."

Jan 1, 2018

By Agnieszka Surowiak, Tomasz Niedoba

The paper presents a way of determining relations between ash content in coal, particle size and particle density by means of regression, multidimensional Morgenstern distribution functions and kernel approximation. The three-dimensional random vector (D, ?, ?), where D is a random variable describing particle size, ? - random variable describing particle density and ? - random variable describing ash content, where function ?=?(d, ?) is obtained by means of regressive function. The multidimensional Morgenstern distribution functions and kernel estimators with the use of Gauss function were applied to approximate the functions f(d, ?, ?) and f1(d, ?). This approach is a new way of multidimensional description of grained materials such as coal and it also allows to evaluate material features more properly than the classical statistical approach. The results were verified statistically.

Jan 1, 2014

By J. Gebhardt, D. McBride, M. Cross, S. Gilbert

Heap leaching of ores containing chalcopyrite offers a low cost option to treat low grade complex copper sulfide ore bodies. However, the slow leach kinetics of chalcopyrite at ambient conditions typically results in unacceptably low recoveries. As the mineralogy of new ore deposits becomes more complex and the effects of gangue chemistry exert a greater influence on copper sulfide leach behavior, the control of leach reaction chemistry becomes more critical. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology has been useful in the capture of multi-phase interactions and provides a path to simulate complex fluid flow, gas and liquid phases, through the heap, along with species transport. Coupling the flow models with the reactive mineral dissolution, and the sometimes competing aqueous chemical and solid-liquid reactions, yields a comprehensive model of the heap leach process. The leach kinetics of chalcopyrite dissolution in heap conditions is examined, and the incorporation of chalcopyrite leach kinetics in the CFD model is described. The application of the model to investigate optimization of the heap is discussed.

Jan 1, 2014

By Yessengaziyev Azamat, Almagul Ultarakova, Onayev Murat, Barkytova Botakoz

"The research is aimed at solving the processing of waste products of titanium-magnesium production. The aim of the research is to extract synthetic carnallite and industrial products enriched with niobium from waste products of titanium-magnesium production. Analysis of the current state of the titanium and magnesium production in the Republic of Kazakhstan shows the availability of significant amounts of chloride wastes containing valuable components. Magnesium and potassium with an average content of 50-60 % potassium chlorides, 25-30 % magnesium chlorides are lost in the wastes of the titanium and magnesium production. Ust-Kamenogorsk Titanium Magnesium Plant JSC (UKTMP) currently imports carnallite that is a KCl-MgCl2X6H2O binary salt at quite high prices. Chloride wastes of titanium production, sublimates of dust chambers of a titanium chlorinator, sludge of a magnesium electrolytic unit and sludge of a carnallite chlorinator has been chosen as the targets of our research. The analysis of niobium distribution within any solid waste of a titanium slag chlorination process in UKTMP JSC showed that the highest content of niobium is in the sublimates of dust chambers of a titanium chlorinator in the ranges from 0.26 to 1.0 %. Among the niobium extraction technologies considered, the known method of its extraction from the chloride waste is leaching with weak solutions of mineral acids or alkalis in order to convert the chloride salts into the solution to be used for synthetic carnallite extraction. Besides niobium, other impurity components are transferred to the cake and shall be separated from the base metals. The effective method for this is the chlorination process enabling niobium transfer into the sublimates in the form of chlorides and thus separating it from the majority of the impurities. The condensed niobium chlorides are hydrolyzed transferring it into sediments in the form of oxide. New ways of processing waste products of titanium-magnesium production with the receipt of marketable products are relevant in the development of processing of mineral raw materials."

Jan 1, 2018

By Gülay Bulut, Ferihan Göktepe

Pyrite is the most abundant and widespread sulphide mineral and its flotation has been investigated by many researchers. It is well known that, pyrite is floatable under acidic conditions and recovery drops with increase in alkalinity due to changes in solubility of iron hydroxides on the pyrite surface. Most of the works also revealed out that pyrite displays variable behaviour in flotation circuits. This behaviour mainly related with origin and mineralogical composition of ore, liberation size, electrochemical behavior of minerals constituting ore, the trace and minor element content of the mineral, texture, application variables belonging to flotation circuits. In this study, copper activation effect was examined on different origin of pyrites. The experiments were performed with five high grade samples of pyrite from the different mining districts of Turkey. The pyrite samples were different from each other with respect to either their physical or chemical properties; they were different physical appearances and contained different associated minerals. In the micro-flotation tests, 1x10-4 mole/L copper sulphate and 1x10-4 potassium ethyl xanthate were used as flotation reagents. First of all pyrite samples were floated using only xanthate at different pH. Results showed that best floatation results obtained at acidic pH range for all pyrite samples. When copper ions were used to activate, all pyrite samples floated at neutral and basic pH values, too but depending on the samples, recovery and pH ranges were slightly changed.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. L. Torem, R. H. Rojas, A. G. Merma

"Fine particle recovery by conventional flotation processes is very low mainly due to the low probability of bubble/particle collision and adhesion. In order to solve the problem of low particle recovery, several flotation technologies have been developed to increase bubble/particle collision efficiency. Among these technologies, the electroflotation process stands out. This process has advantages in the generation of microbubbles (<100 µm) and in the production of different amounts of hydrogen and oxygen microbubbles. These advantages favorably influence the fine particle floatability, due to the greater probability of particle/bubble collision and adhesion. The electroflotation tests were conducted for a hematite/sodium oleate system in a Partridge-Smith modified electroflotation binary cell of 0.38 L usable volume. The sodium oleate concentration, particle size, pH and current density were evaluated. Satisfactory results in the recovery of hematite were found at pH values of 7, reaching hematite floatability of 99% and 90% with hydrogen and oxygen bubbles, respectively.INTRODUCTIONThe flotation recovery of fine and ultrafine particles is normally very low and is caused by several factors, among them, the low probability of collision and adhesion bubble-particle, the difficulty to overcome the energy barrier (entrainment and entrapment), low selectivity, surface oxidation and mineralogical changes (Schulze et al., 1989; Waters et al., 2008; Shahbazi et al., 2010). This problem can be overcome by decreasing the bubble size or by increasing the apparent particle size. However, it is worth noting that the use of small bubbles or micro bubbles also involves some disadvantages such as their low momentum resulting in a slower process comparing with conventional flotation. Electroflotation is an attractive alternative for treating fine particles with small bubbles less than 100 µm, generated by the electrolysis of water. Electroflotation is one of the variants of the flotation process, where the gaseous phase is produced by electrolysis of an aqueous solution, generating oxygen and hydrogen bubbles (Sarkar, 2010; Gupta and Ali, 2012). These smaller size bubbles allow the recovery of fine particles by increasing the collision efficiency. This process is versatile and competitive in relation to other techniques such as dissolved air flotation and dispersed air flotation because the electroflotation units are smaller, more compact and require less maintenance and less operating cost than other flotation units (Zouboulis and Matis, 1995,). In addition, the electroflotation process is a clean technique and provides results in a short time, requiring only the investment in the electroflotation cell construction stage and the choice of the electrodes (Ketkar et al., 1991; Sarkar et al., 2010; Sun et al., 2011). In this sense, this study assesses the effect of pH, particle size and sodium oleate concentration on electroflotation of hematite fines."

Jan 1, 2018

By Tsvetan Damyanov, Nikolay Hristov, Evgeni Kostadinov, Lubomir Kuzev

"The process of grinding in drum mills is directly dependent on the dynamic forces occuring in the free movement of the grinding bodies in the volume. The subject of discussion are the potential impacts between grinding bodies having different shape and equal weight in a drum mill that has a diameter of 1200 mm. The study utilised ball grinding bodies having a diameter of 120 mm and tetraballpebs having a conditional diameter of 120 mm. The study was carried out using the Solid Works Simulation software. The following cases were examined: • Impact between two identical grinding bodies; • Impact between a grinding body and the shell surface. The study provided numerical values for impact force, kinetic energy of impact, linear speed of impact, linear displacment of the center of gravity and duration of impact deformation. The impact force of the balls is approximately 179000 N. The impact force of the tetraballpebs with typical vertices, edges and spherical surfaces depending on the area of impact is 177000 to 185000 N. Upon impact between two spherical surfaces of tetraballpebs, the contact area is 263.55 mm2, which is more than twice the contact area upon impact between two balls, which is 114.39 mm2. This determines better conditions for the transmission of kinetic energy by reducing opportunities for overgrinding."

Jan 1, 2014

By Darryel Boucher, Raymond Langlois, Neil Rowson, Kristian Waters

The Knelson Concentrator is a centrifugal gravity concentrator composed of a high speed rotating bowl into which a mineral slurry is fed. The rotational motion creates a centrifugal acceleration up to an equivalent of 200 G. Under this acceleration, particles enter fluidised riffles along the side of the bowl, with the fluidisation allowing for the substitution of dense material for less dense. The separation mechanism is not fully understood and questions remain on the optimal residence time, slurry feed parameters and bowl surface profile to achieve a better separation. The positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) technique has been applied to record the motion of a -1700+1180 µm particle of a quartz-gold matrix, labelled with 18F radioisotope while it undergoes concentration inside a 3" laboratory scale Knelson Concentrator (KC-MD3) operated at 60 G. The slurry used was composed of quartz and magnetite. Particle trajectories during the first stage of the concentration process where the heavier particles centrifuge through the increasingly dense slurry towards the riffles of the bowl are shown with respect to time. This work reveals new information on particle motion inside the Knelson Concentrator and the results will be used for validation of developed separation model as well as optimisation of a centrifugal concentrator’s performance.

Jan 1, 2014

By Zhazira Baltabekova, Nina Lokhova, Arailym Dukembayeva, Madali Naimanbayev, Zhantore Dzhurkanov

"Recycling of industrial waste provided they have enough valuable elements requires significantly less investment compared with ore processing. Promising man-made raw material of rare earth elements (REE) is phosphogypsum. Works performed on dismantlement of phosphogypsum only concern phosphogypsum processing from apatit. In this case, none of the developments was tested for phosphogypsum produced on the basis of phosphorus, chemical and mineralogical composition of which is markedly different from apatites. We studied phosphorites of the Karatau deposits (Kazakhstan). Mineralogically all the layers are composed of three main ingredients: phosphate, silica and carbonate, which account for 92-96% of the weight composition of ores and rocks. Of impurities there are pyrite, iron hydroxides, gypsum, fluorite. In addition to the actual composition of phosphate in phosphate ores there are apatite. Silica is presented by chalcedony and quartz, and carbonate by calcite and dolomite. The results of X-ray microanalysis showed point cluster of grains containing REE in samples of phosphate ore. Analysis of the grain showed that REE are in the form of phosphates and silicates, which according to numerous studies in apatites is not established. In this regard, phosphogypsum, waste of production, is different in composition too. Therefore, transfer of techniques proposed in the methods for extracting REE from phosphogypsum after processing apatite, did not give the stated results and required a new approach to solving this problem. It should be noted that the phosphogypsum produced by processing the Karatau phosphorite contains medium group of REE by 2.6, and heavy group by 7.8 times more than phosphogypsum from processing the Kola apatite. Given the shortage of medium and heavy REE research to develop ways to extract the lanthanides from phosphogypsum after processing phosphate rock is promising. The study contains results of studies on the extraction of REE from phosphogypsum after Karatau phosphorite processing."

Jan 1, 2014

By G. I. Voiloshnikov, V. E. Dementyev

"One of the most important advances in the world gold metallurgy is the introduction of adsorption technologies for processing of ores and concentrates. «Adsorbent-In-Pulp» process allows to eliminate pulp filtration that is especially important during processing of clay and slime bearing ores. “Adsorbent-In-Leach” process is one of the ways for processing of preg-robbing (carbonaceous) products. High efficiency, increased metals recovery, decrease in capital and operational costs, possibility of easy control and adjustment are the advantages of adsorption processes. Anion-exchange resins and activated carbons are used as adsorbents. This paper presents Irgiredmet experience on gold adsorption technology using both adsorbents (RIP, RIL, CIP, CIL processes). It includes results of long-term studies of different theoretical and practical issues of adsorption processes. Irgiredmet started development of ion exchange technology (RIP, RIL) in 1964. Laboratory and pilot plant tests were conducted to develop process design criteria for 15 RIP plants of the former USSR. During this test work a great number of newly synthesized resins including strong- and medium-base resins was studied, different types of adsorption feed (ores and concentrates) were tested; some theoretical regularities of adsorption process were investigated; the technology of two stage adsorption for silver gold ore, improved flowsheet for gold elution and resin regeneration, designs of technological equipment for adsorption, elution, electrowinning processes including pulsation columns, electrowinning cells etc. were developed. Irgiredmet took part in commissioning of practically all RIP plants in the former USSR. Due to its efforts RIP process became to be the standard technology. Last Irgiredmet RIP projects include the development of adsorption technology using medium-base resin for the three mines owned by GC Petropavlovsk (Amur region, Russia). The complex of the testworks on activated carbon gold adsorption technology including the search of prospective activated carbons; study on gold adsorption mechanism; development, testing and introduction of process flowsheets and the equipment for their realization was conducted. The original gold elution process was developed. The developed CIP technology was firstly introduced at Lebedinsky gold plant (Yakutia). Now carbon adsorption technology is widely used at Russian gold mines as CIP, CIL, CIC processes. The most relevant example of CIP introduction is Svetlinsky gold plant (Ural, Russia) with capacity 8 Mt of ore/ year."

Jan 1, 2018

By M. Blagojev, R. Tomanec

"Studies reported in this paper used polymetallic Pb-Zn-Sb-As-(Ag, Au) ore from Dražnja, Kosovo. The ore is comparatively rich in Zn (6.56%) and Pb (2.87%), but with high rates of Sb and As. Conventional lead and zinc concentration by flotation produced galena and sphalerite rich concentrate with high recovery, but with excessive As and Sb. After chemical analyses, which could not detect the reason for the excessive elements, ore minerals were identified under the ore microscope, their texture characterized, and degree of liberation of useful minerals was assessed. Microscopy of the mineral concentrates revealed complex intergrowths of galena and marmatite minerals mostly with sulphosalt minerals (boulangerite, jamesonite and bournonite) and also with arsenopyrite mainly responsible for the unsatisfactory quality of the concentrate. These complex sulphosalts, among other things have similar behaviour during the flotation concentration, and in spite of their interlocking with galena, therefore inadequate liberation, sulphosalts remain in the lead concentrate. Microscopic analyses indicated that a better galena concentration product is possible with a higher rate of mineral liberation, and then by selective floc flotation of some sulphosalt minerals. Purpose of this work was to show that only chemical analysis is not sufficient, according to that we solved the problem by precise mineral identification and time consuming mineral liberation measurements. INTRODUCTION The polymetallic Pb-Zn-Sb-As-(Ag, Au) ore body of Dražnja, Kosovo, fairly rich in Zn (6.56%) and Pb (2.87%) was repeatedly explored and once even worked. Mineralization at Draznja was primarily represented by sphalerite, galenite and marcasite/pirite. Some sections comprise massive sulphides, and others are lower grade zones of semi-massive sphalerite/galena or marcasite/pyrite dominant sulphides. The ore body II was formed in the southern gallery in the structure Çukë – Lajthishtë (with content of 3.16% Pb and 7.31% Zn). Pb-Zn ore with increased content of As, Sb sulphosalts is not rare phenomenon in the world. While previously treated as unprofitable, economical uninteresting ore, today with development processing and new reagents (organic, ecologic), are the topic of scientific papers. The examination of Pb-Zn ore with high content of sulphosalts we find in deposits as: The hydrothermal vein deposit of Harja in the Baia Mare area, contain a wide variety of sulphosalts [Cook, N. & Damian, G., 1997]; also the deposits Fankou Mine in Guangdong Province and the Dachang Mine in Guangxi Province, where the flotation concentration of galena and jamesonite takes place [Runqing Liu et al. 2015], [Zhang Ting, Qin Wen-Qing, 2015];. On a samples from Tibet in China flotation separation test of galena and jamesonite was conducted [Sun Wei, Han Haisheng, Tao Hongbiao, Liu Runqing, 2015]. According to history of investigation, the mineralized area of Dražnja has a long history of exploration and possible exploitation activities [Slowey, Galen, 2009]. Recent workings were carried out in three stages through the 20th century."

Jan 1, 2018

By C. A. C. Sequeira, G. N. Anastassakis

Electrochemical processes occur on nano-, micro- and macro- scale in numerous applications such as fuel cells, batteries, hydrogen production, mineral extraction, water treatment, electrotherapy, sensors and many others. In most of these applications, gases evolve either at one or both electrodes due to electrolysis. These gases form bubbles play a crucial role in electrochemical systems. For example, in electrowinning (EW) that is used to extract and refine metals such as Cu, Zn, Ni, Mn, and Cd from their solutions, in most cases the solution is acidic and oxidation of water molecules at the anode is the common counter reaction, which results in the liberation of oxygen bubbles. This generally requires a high overpotential and accounts for a considerable percentage of the energy consumed in metal EW electrolytic cells, apart from producing acid mist that is very corrosive for other cell equipment and building structures. The behaviour of bubbles in electrochemical systems is still a complex challenging topic which requires a better understanding of gas bubbles hydrodynamics and their interactions with electrode surface and bulk liquid, as well as between the bubbles themselves. The objective of the current paper is to briefly review the fundamental hydrodynamics of both gas bubbles on the electrode surface and gas bubbles interaction with the liquid bulk solution. The current work also investigates the impact of gas bubbling and some operating parameters in copper EW, such as current density (100-500 A/m2), temperature (25-75ºC), acidity (50-300 g/L) and a typical chemical mist suppressant (<50 ppm). The results clearly show that both suppressant and temperature reduced the overall surface tension of the solution. Also, chloride concentration and applied current improved electrolyte flow and copper quality at higher current densities. The current paper contributes to the development of mineral processing (specifically to copper hydrometallurgy), as it deals with fundamental hydrodynamics and interactions of gas bubbles that formed during copper EW and play a crucial role in copper electrochemical systems.

Jan 1, 2018

By Lj. D. Andric

Development of modern devices for mechanical and mechanochemical materials activation has been dated since the beginning of last century. Rapid development of high-energy mills that are different in type, size, design and performances, has been occurred during the last four decades. Because of complete understanding of mechanical processing, entire knowledge of theoretical principles of high-energy mills is necessary. These principles are main causales of process that are happened in materials during the mechanical activation. This paper is occupied by theoretical principles of operation of high-energy mills. Conventional high energy mills with balls, high-energy planetary mills and high-energy vibrational mills are particularly considered in the paper.

Jan 1, 2014

By G. K. Nimal Subasinghe

The performance of Knelson Concentrators (KC) used in gravity gold circuits often rely on manufacturers recommendations for selecting operating parameters such as, fluidising water flow rate and cycle time. These parameters are not only dependent on the machine parameters but also on the feed characteristics such as, size distribution of the gold and gangue particles and the composition of its constituent minerals. Particles entering a KC experience a centrifugal acceleration due to the high bowl rotational speeds. The required centripetal force to maintain a circular orbit is provided by the fluid drag force created by inwardly moving fluidising water and the Bagnold?s force arising from the particle/particle collisions. When the fluidising water flow rate is low particles move towards the outer rim of the bowl forming a packed bed within the grooves. On the other hand, if the fluidizing water flowrate is high the bed expands and some particles would move towards the centre of the bowl and gets carried to the tailings stream, thereby reducing the amount of material retained within the grooves of the bowl. Based on a force balance on a particle captured within the KC, a criterion which can be used to predict the amount of material recovered in the bowl has been derived and validated by experimental data. It has been shown that this criterion may be used to demarcate the transition of the bed from a packed-bed state to a fluidised state depending on the fluidizing water flowrate. By identifying the conditions for the optimal expansion of the bed comprising different constituent mineral particles, it is possible to estimate the optimal fluidising water flow rate that would maximise gold recovery while minimising gangue recovery. It was also observed that the accumulation of valuable mineral in the bowl takes place by the displacement of the gangue particles in the bed by the incoming heavy mineral particles. The kinetics of this segregation process was also studied using synthetic mineral mixtures. The experimental data suggests that this process follows first order kinetics and that the build up of heavy mineral reaches a maximum which could be used to identify the optimal cycle time. In this work, the suitability of the above model in optimizing the performance of a KC have been reviewed. Also the necessity and merits of testing an unaltered

Jan 1, 2014

By S. J. Neethling

"Liberation is a key driver in all mineral separation processes as it limits the maximum possible grade for a given recovery. In flotation, this is further complicated by the fact that it is surface exposure of the floatable minerals that determines the ultimate performance. Liberation, grade and surface exposure are commonly quantified using Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled to Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) analysis of polished sections. The intrinsically 2D nature of this technique can result in significant sampling errors and stereological effects that can affect the quantification of the ore’s textural characteristics. X-ray micro-Tomography (XMT) is an imaging method that can non-invasively and non-destructively delineate ore fragments in 3D, thus providing an alternative method that eliminates the need for stereological corrections and readily provides surface exposure. A methodology and automated algorithm were designed for extracting this information from images of closely packed particles, thus allowing samples containing a large number of particles to be assessed.The main drawback of XMT is that, unlike SEM/EDX, it cannot directly measure the mineralogy of the sample, instead producing a 3D X-ray attenuation map. We therefore also present an algorithm for calibrating the thresholding of the XMT images based on SEM/EDX images of sections through the same sample, thus allowing the liberation analysis to be carried out on a 3D mineral map in which the uncertainty in the mineral assignment is small and statistically quantified.The methodology was tested on low grade porphyry copper ore as this is both an industrially relevant and traditionally difficult system to quantify using XMT due to the similarity in the X-ray attenuation of the sulphide species, especially the pyrite and chalcopyrite. As each 3D volume imaged contain 100-1000s of grains, large data sets can be readily produced. By dividing these particles into classes based on both their surface exposure and grade, the extent to which there is preferential breakage of the particles can be assessed—an important consideration if sufficient surface liberation for good flotation performance is to be achieved at coarser particle sizes. It is also shown that erroneous conclusions can be drawn when basing the analysis on 2D sections through the particles."

Jan 1, 2018