Effect of frother on cell characterization and circuit performance

浮选是从矿石中回收矿物的最广泛使用的工艺之一，提供从能源（油砂）到消费品（镍，铜）和先进技术（硅）的日常生活商品。该过程取决于空气作为气泡分散在含有悬浮在水中的破碎和研磨的矿石颗粒（浆料）的罐中。在罐（或池）中，疏水性矿物（不易湿润）将附着在气泡上并上升形成泡沫（漂浮产品或浓缩物）并溢出池，而亲水性矿物颗粒保持悬浮状态以形成非漂浮产品（或尾矿）。在分离中通常使用两类化学试剂，一类用于改变颗粒性质（例如，收集器将亲水性颗粒转化为疏水性颗粒）和另一种改变气泡性质的称为起泡剂的物质。第二种试剂类别是本提案的重点。

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.