Frother distribution in Flotation Circuits

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The production of base metals is based on concentrating particles of the mineral of interest generated by grinding the ore. Of the several technologies available for selectively separating particles, flotation is currently the most used, because of its high efficiency and low cost. Gibraltar Mine is a low-grade, coarse grinding operation; retaining its economic viability by keeping throughput and recovery is the top current priority. Production is being adversely affected by increasing losses in the coarse particle fraction, and as increasing grinding capacity is not a viable option at this stage, efforts are focused on searching for frothers and dosages that increase cell performance; the application of McGill work on frother analysis and frother roles characterization offers an opportunity to rapidly find alternatives in this pursuit. It is also important to consider that the performance of a flotation circuit, even when proper frothers are in use, depends on how cells are operated and frothers delivered. Plant work initiated by McGill, suggesting that even production in individual cells leads to optimum circuit performance, have been demonstrated at some industrial sites with major increases in production and revenue. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the effect of using or not this concept is more significant for shorter lines of cells, which is the case at Gibraltar Mine. This project aims to collect information for selection of more effective frothers, by characterizing frother strengths in the reduction of bubble size and in the development of froth stability, and to propose frother delivery and cell operating strategies leading to lower frother consumption and higher recovery and selectivity; testing of new frothers and different delivery and operating strategies can be quickly assessed with minor or likely no changes to the circuit. Canada is recognized as one of the leaders in the characterization of the phenomena occurring in mineral flotation as several of its universities have made major contributions to the current state of the art. Facilitating technology transfer to test recent developments can only help to maintain McGill and Canada leading roles in the field.