Effect of frother on cell characterization and circuit performance

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Flotation is one of the most widely used processes for recovering minerals from ores, providing the commodities of every day life from energy (oil sands) to consumer goods (nickel, copper) and advanced technologies (silicon). The process depends on dispersion of air as bubbles throughout tanks containing crushed and ground ore particles suspended in water (slurry). In the tank (or cell) hydrophobic minerals (not easily wetted) will attach to the bubbles and rise to form a froth (the float product or concentrate) and overflow the cell while the hydrophilic mineral particles remain in suspension to form the non-float product (or tailings). Two chemical reagent classes are commonly used in the separation, one to modify particle properties (e.g., collectors to convert hydrophilic particles to hydrophobic) and another to alter the bubble properties, known as frothers. It is this second reagent class that is a focus of this proposal.