Pulp Formulas & Metallurgical Formulas
Definitions. “Pulp,” in flotation terminology, is a freely-flowing mixture of powdered ore and water. “Pulp density,” when the phrase is applied properly, indicates the specific gravity of the pulp. “Percentage of solids” means the ratio, expressed as a percentage, of the weight of the solids in a pulp to the total weight of pulp. “Pulp consistency” is the ratio, […]
Flotation Controlling Factors
The object of this paper is to offer some suggestions to assist metallurgists to supervise the operations of flotation plants. We do not yet thoroughly understand what “flotation” is, or “why minerals float,” and all attempts that have been made to explain the phenomena have been based on theory or imagination, and have not been capable […]
Column Flotation Cells
Column flotation cells, like mechanical cells, are used to perform mineral separations. Column cells do not use mechanical agitation (impellers). Instead, mixing is achieved by the turbulence provided by the rising bubbles. Columns are mostly used to produce final grade concentrates because they are capable of high selectivity. Other features which distinguish them from mechanical […]
Column Cells
Flotation cells can be divided in two groups: mechanical and pneumatic machines. The first group comprises the traditional cells which employ a mechanical agitation, and the second group is related to pneumatic cells which do not have mechanical devices for maintaining the slurry under agitation. Columns offer the advantages of counter current contact between slurry […]
Lead-Bismuth Flotation
Often we hear that copper concentrates have contaminants which affect the incomes to be obtained by commercialization. Well, one of the worst contaminant is bismuth because is difficult to remove during smelting process and the metallic copper to be obtained at the end of the process will be brittle and consequently its mechanical properties will be […]
Why do Metals Float
Some of the fundamental principles of this concentration ‘upside down,’ as it may be termed, being such a new method, have been overlooked. There has been such a mad scramble to get results in advance of the ‘other fellow,’ and to penetrate the cloud of secrecy enforced by patent litigation, that there has been little […]
Electrostatic of Minerals and Flotation
The development of every new metallurgical method is accompanied by a host of contradictory statements and widely differing opinions, but it is only by the elimination and correlation of parts of recorded observations that a particular process approaches a state of perfection. The theory of flotation has called forth a number of articles, each writer […]
Electrochemistry of Flotation
If one turns to ‘Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism,’ by Silvanus Thompson and studies the fundamental principles of frictional electricity, as given in Chapter 1 of Electrochemistry of Flotation, a clearer idea of the causes of ‘flotation’ may be obtained. After seeing a few experiments, such as were performed at the Case School of […]
Cyanide Leaching of Flotation Concentrate
When Charles Butters began to take up the work of flotation in our Oakland laboratory, one of the first points brought to our attention was the treatment of the concentrate produced by flotation; J. E. Clennell was accordingly instructed to undertake the researches detailed in the present paper. The whole value of the process hinges […]
Air Injected Froth Flotation
The manifestation of the force of surface tension is a phenomenon that shows itself as a tendency of any liquid body—we may confine ourselves to a liquid—to assume that shape in which it has the least surface. It is a well-known fact that in the form of a sphere the ratio of surface to volume […]