Floatation

Mineral Processing
 ▪ Floatation is undoubtedly the most important and versatile
mineral separation technique, and both its use and application
are continually being expanded to treat greater tonnages and to
cover new areas.
▪ Flotation has permitted the mining of low grade and complex
ore bodies, which would have otherwise been regarded as
uneconomic.
▪ Initially developed to treat the sulphide minerals of cupper,
lead, and zinc floatation has expanded to include Nickel
platinum and gold-sulphides, and to non-sulphide minerals
including oxides such as hematite and cassiterite and non
metallic mineral such as fluorite, talc, phosphate, potash and
energy (minerals), fine coal and bitumen.

Floatation now finds applications outside the mining industry like paper industry and oil refineries.
Floatation is a physico-chemical separation process that utilises the
difference in the surface properties of the valuable and gangue minerals.
Froth floatation involves three different phases- solid (fine ore powders),
liquid (water) and froth.

The process of separation of mineral includes three important mechanism,

1) True floatation: i.e. selective attachment of air bubbles,
2) ENTRAINMENT in the water which passes through the froth,
3) AGGRESSION: physical entrapment between the particles in froth.
▪ True floatation dominates the recovery of the valuable minerals and the other two
decide the separation efficiency between the valuable and the gangue.
▪ In floatation suspended in the water between bubbles enter the floatation froth
from the top pulp region and are transferred to the concentrate.
▪ Both hydrophobic and hydrophilic minerals particles suspended in water can
experience entrainment.

▪ The attachment of valuable minerals to air bubbles is the most important

mechanism and represents the majority of particles that are recovered to the
concentrate.
▪ Although true floatation is the dominant mechanism for the recovery of valuable
minerals, the separation efficiency between the valuable minerals and gangue is
also dependent on the degree of entrainment and physical entrapment.
Flotation process can be applied to relatively fine particles, because if the
particles are coarse and heavy their weight will be greater than the adhesion
between the particle and the air bubble and the particle will detach from the
bubble.

There are two ways of floatation:

1) Direct floatation: In which the mineral will attached

2) Reverse floatation: in which the gangue is attached to the froth and minerals
remain in tailing
Applications:

It is currently in use of many diverse applications:

▪ Separate sulphide minerals from silica gangue (and for other
sulphide minerals) separating potassium chloride from sodium
chloride.
▪ Removing silicate minerals from iron ore
▪ Separating phosphate minerals from silicates.
▪ Even non-mineral applications de-inking recycled newsprint.
It is particularly useful for fine-grained ores that are not amenable to
conventional gravity concentration.
Flotation mechanism

The essential mechanism of floatation involves the attachment of

mineral particles to air bubbles in such manner that carried to the
surface of the ore pulp, where they can be removed.
The process encompasses the following steps:

1. Grinding the ore to a size sufficiently fine to liberate the valuable

minerals from one another and from the adhering gangue minerals.
2. Making conditions favourable for the adherence of the desired
minerals to air bubbles.
3. Creating a rising current of air bubbles in the ore pulp.
4. Forming a mineral-laden froth on the surface of the ore pulp.
5. Removing the mineral-laden froth.
 This process commences with comminution
(to increase the surface area of the ore minerals)

The ore is grounded to fine powders and wetted with water to form a slurry.
A surfactant chemical (known as collector) is mixed with slurry to render the
desired mineral HYDROPHOBIC.
▪ The attachment of valuable minerals to air bubbles to most important
mechanism and represents the majority of particles that are recovered to
the concentrate.

▪ Although true floatation is the dominant mechanism for the recovery of

valuable minerals, the separation efficiency between the valuable
minerals and gangue is also dependent on the degree of entrainment and
physical entrapment.
▪ The slurry is then placed in water bath containing Frother, which is aerated
to create bubbles.
▪ The desired mineral escape water by getting attached to the air bubbles,
which rise to the surface and form what is called forth.
▪ This forth is then removed and the concentrated mineral is refined.
Basic flotation process

▪ Basis of froth flotation is the difference in wettability's of different

minerals.
▪ Particles range from those that are easily wettable by water
(hydrophilic) to those that are water repellent (hydrophobic).
▪ If the mixture of hydrophobic and hydrophilic particles are
suspended in water and the air is bubbled through the suspension,
then the hydrophobic particles will tend to attach to air bubbles and
float to the surface.
▪ The froth layer that forms on the surface will then be heavily loaded with
the hydrophobic mineral, and can be removed as a separated product.
▪ The hydrophilic particles will have much less tendency to attach to air
bubbles, and so it will remain in suspension.
▪ Particles can either be naturally hydrophobic, or the hydrophobicity can
be induced by chemical treatments.
▪ Naturally hydrophobic materials include hydrocarbons, and non polar
solid such as elemental sulphur.
 The stability of the forth depends on the strength of the attachment of the bubble to the mineral
Surface this strength can be estimated with the help of Young Dupre equation, which relates the
Strength of attachment to the interfacial energies.
𝛤𝑤/𝑎
Water
Bubble
ϑ
𝛤𝑠/𝑎 𝛤𝑠/𝑤

According to Young Dupre equation

Now, let W(s/a) is the work of adhesion, i.e. force
𝛤𝑤/𝑎 cosϑ = 𝛤𝑠/𝑎 - 𝛤𝑠/𝑤
required to break the particle bubble interface,

Where 𝛤𝑤/𝑎 , 𝛤𝑠/𝑎 , 𝛤𝑠/𝑤 are the surface energies W(s/a) = Γ(w/a) + Γ(s/w) - Γ(s/a)
between water air, solid air and and solid W(s/a) = Γ(w/a) - Γ(w/a) cosϑ
water interphase and ϑ is the contact angle. W(s/a) = Γ(w/a) (1- cosϑ)
From the above equation it can be seen that greater the contact angle, greater is the W(s/a).
i.e. the work of adhesion between the particle and bubble and thus more resilient is the system to the disruptive forces.

Contact angle around 90 is sufficient,

If the bubbles are large on size relative to the particles, there by decreasing the surface area of the bubble, which
Cause more fluid to enter into the froth which leads to entrainment.

Therefore the bubble diameter must be comparable to the particle diameter, to ensure a good contact
Between them.

Also, the stability of the froth must not be too high, as it can be lead to the formation of persistent foam,
Which is difficult to convey and pump through plants.
Essential variables in floatation process

Floatation system

Chemistry component Equipment components Operation components

1) Collector a) Feed rate

I. Cell design
2) Frothers b) Mineralogy
II. Agitators
3) Activators c) Particle size
III. Air flow
4) Depressants d) Pulp density
IV. Cell bank
5) pH e) temperature
 Chemical of floatation

Chemicals are required

1) To control the relative Hydrophilicities between the particles

2) To main proper froth characteristics

The different types of chemicals involved are:

a) Collectors
b) Frothers
c) Regulators
1) Activators
2) Depressants
3) pH
Collectors:
Are reagents that are used to selectively absorb onto the surface particles.
They form the monolayer on the particle surface, makes thin film of non polar
hydrophobic hydrocarbons.
How increase the hydrophobicity??
The collectors greatly increase the contact angle so that bubbles will adhere to the
surface.
Selection of the correct collector is critical for an effective separation by froth
floatation. (For the different minerals their should be different class of
collectors, depending on their ionic charges.)
Collectors can be generally classed depending on there ionic charge.
They can be non ionic, an ionic cationic.
The non-ionic collectors are simple hydrocarbon oils, while the anionic and cat-ionic
collectors consists of a polar part that selectively attaches to the mineral surfaces,
and the non-polar part that projects out into the solution and makes the surface
hydrophobic.

Collectors can either chemically bond to the mineral surface (chemisorption), or be

held on the surface by physical forces (physical adsorption)
There are two ways of adsorption of collectors

1) Chemisorption 2) Physisorption

Chemisorption : ions and molecules from

solutions form irreversible bonds with the
surface, through chemical reaction.

It is highly specific process and thus more

selective.

Physisorption: ions and molecules from

solutions reversibly attach to the surface, either
by electrostatic attraction or van der waals
bonding

Less selective.
The collectors should be used in very small concentration, because:

It adversely affects the recovery of the valuables, due to the development of

multi-collector layers on the surface, thereby reducing the proportion of
hydrocarbon part oriented towards the bulk solutions, which reduces the
hydrophobicity.

It increase the cost.

It tends to float other minerals thus, reducing selectivity.

Frothers:
Widely used in the mining industry.

Key function of frothers

1) Reduce surface tension of liquid gas interface to enable stable froth
formation to allow selective drainage from the froth of entertain gangue.
2) Hinder coalescence in order to stabilize the formation of bubble in the pulp
phase.
3) Facilitate hydrophobic particle adhesion to air bubbles.
4) To increase the floatation kinetics.

Ex: Pine oil, alcohols, polyglycols, triehoxy butane

Role of frothers in floatation kinetics:

Reduction in bubble size increases in number and total surface area of the bubbles, which increases
Collision rate with particles and thus increases floatation kinetics.

Reduces rise velocity and increases resident time of bubbles in the pulp, which increases the number
of collisions with particles and thus further increases kinetics.

Formation of froth means bubble do not burst when they reach the top of the pulp, which enables the
collected particles to overflow as the float product.

Should have enough soluble in water so that they can evenly distributed and effective.
 Activators
These reagent activates the mineral surface towards the action of the collectors, by altering their chemical
Properties. Also referred as Friend of collectors.

They are soluble salt which get ionised easily and the ions react with the mineral surface.

A classical example in case of SPHALERITE ore.

Xantahtes can not effectively float the ZnS ore particles, due the formation of readily soluble Zinc-Xanthate
Compound on the surface.

ZnS + Xanthate → S + Zn Xanthate

Hence CuSo4 is used as an activator in this case,

ZnS + CuSo4 → CuS + ZnSo4

The CuS film on the mineral surface now allow a stable and easy floatation of the sphalerite ore by the
Xanthate collector, as the copper Xanthate compound so formed is insoluble in water.
 Depressant
This reagent deactivate the mineral surface towards the action of collectors by altering their chemical
properties, hence they are referred as ENIMIES of the collectors.

Their typical use is to increase the selectivity of the floatation. By preventing one mineral from floatation while
allowing other minerals to float unimpeded.

Two category:
Inorganic ( sodium cyanide, Zn sulphate)
Organic (starch, tannin, Quebracho, Dextrin etc.)