The control of rougher flotation circuits represents a challenging control problem due to the non linearities, multiple inputs-multiple outputs and the wide variety of disturbances acting on the system. Many concentrators rely on regulatory control loops to maintain a stable operation and on the plant operators to find the best operational results. As a mean of using the operator’s knowledge in...

For predicting the key technology indicators (concentrate grade and tailings recovery rate) of flotation process, an echo state network (ESN) based fusion soft-sensor model optimized by the improved glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the color feature (saturation and brightness) and texture features (angular second moment, sum entropy, inertia moment, etc.) based ...

Fluorite, barite and calcite are important industry minerals. However, they often co-exist, presenting difficulty in selectively separating them due to their similar surface properties. In this study, valonea extract and sodium fluosilicate were used as depressants to selectively separate them by flotation, with sodium oleate as the collector. The single mineral flotation results showed that va...

Beneficiation of a low-grade iron ore was investigated by combination of the low-intensity magnetic separation and reverse flotation methods. The main constituents of the representative sample were 36.86% Fe, 8.1% FeO, 14.2% CaO, 13.6% SiO2, and 0.12% S based on the X-ray fluorescence, titration, and Leco analysis methods. The mineralogical studies by the X-ray diffraction, scanning electron mi...

Flotation is the most important process for concentrating mineral ores. This process may occur in any vessel such as column flotation, which has been used widely during the last decade and the conventional flotation cells. The effect of superficial feed velocity on the copper recovery was investigated using pilot-scale column flotation of "Sarcheshmeh Capper Complex". The results were compa...

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the controllable operating parameters influence, including pH, solid content, collector, co-collector, and depressant dose, and conditioning time, on apatite flotation kinetics. Four first order flotation kinetic models are tested on batch flotation time-recovery profiles. The results of batch flotation tests and the fitting of first-order ki...

The recovery and concentrate grade, used simultaneously, are the most widely accepted measures of assessing metallurgical performance. Meanwhile, new challenges are being found with more complex ores around the world, a new methodology to evaluate flotation circuits more accurately is used to keep the Mineral Industry afloat in a changing world by increasing revenues. The flotation process is d...

Process optimization is one of the most important activities in today's competitive industries. the rather high cost of research and development has necessitated the development of experimental methods by which the factors affecting processes&#10could be determined with minimum number of experiments. Over the last two decades, various types of experimental designs have been used. Among the diff...