Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation

Flotation is controlled by the bubble–particle attachment mechanism which depends on the particle surface properties i.e., the particle composition, the surface liberation of valuable minerals and collector adsorption. This paper focuses on using the bubble–particle attachment method to understand t...

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Main Authors: Albijanic, Boris, Nimal Subasinghe, G., Bradshaw, D., Nguyen, A.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier Ltd 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/22328
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author Albijanic, Boris
Nimal Subasinghe, G.
Bradshaw, D.
Nguyen, A.
author_facet Albijanic, Boris
Nimal Subasinghe, G.
Bradshaw, D.
Nguyen, A.
author_sort Albijanic, Boris
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Flotation is controlled by the bubble–particle attachment mechanism which depends on the particle surface properties i.e., the particle composition, the surface liberation of valuable minerals and collector adsorption. This paper focuses on using the bubble–particle attachment method to understand the factors affecting attachment time. The attachment time measurements were performed with sized concentrates obtained by flotation of a copper sulphide ore (Northparkes Mine, Australia) in a mechanically agitated batch flotation cell. Quantitative mineral liberation analysis was used to determine the mineralogy of flotation concentrates. The results showed that the higher the amount of highly and moderately liberated copper minerals in flotation concentrates, the lower the attachment time. By using attachment time and collector dosage, we defined a non-linear empirical correlation to estimate Cu grade. The proposed empirical correlation has shown a satisfactory agreement between the calculated and the experimental Cu grade. These results showed that attachment time measurements are related to the Cu grade. This relationship may be used in the future to develop a practical method (without assays) to monitor changing grade for a specified system (flotation plant). It also may be possible to infer potential grade if mineralogy samples are available, but not enough samples are available for conventional flotation tests. However this requires a significant amount of further work.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-223282017-09-13T13:55:05Z Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation Albijanic, Boris Nimal Subasinghe, G. Bradshaw, D. Nguyen, A. Flotation is controlled by the bubble–particle attachment mechanism which depends on the particle surface properties i.e., the particle composition, the surface liberation of valuable minerals and collector adsorption. This paper focuses on using the bubble–particle attachment method to understand the factors affecting attachment time. The attachment time measurements were performed with sized concentrates obtained by flotation of a copper sulphide ore (Northparkes Mine, Australia) in a mechanically agitated batch flotation cell. Quantitative mineral liberation analysis was used to determine the mineralogy of flotation concentrates. The results showed that the higher the amount of highly and moderately liberated copper minerals in flotation concentrates, the lower the attachment time. By using attachment time and collector dosage, we defined a non-linear empirical correlation to estimate Cu grade. The proposed empirical correlation has shown a satisfactory agreement between the calculated and the experimental Cu grade. These results showed that attachment time measurements are related to the Cu grade. This relationship may be used in the future to develop a practical method (without assays) to monitor changing grade for a specified system (flotation plant). It also may be possible to infer potential grade if mineralogy samples are available, but not enough samples are available for conventional flotation tests. However this requires a significant amount of further work. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/22328 10.1016/j.mineng.2014.08.004 Elsevier Ltd restricted
spellingShingle Albijanic, Boris
Nimal Subasinghe, G.
Bradshaw, D.
Nguyen, A.
Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
title Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
title_full Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
title_fullStr Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
title_full_unstemmed Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
title_short Influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
title_sort influence of liberation on bubble-particle attachment time in flotation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/22328