International chemical company Clariant to sponsor Flotation '19

Good to hear that Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, is sponsoring Flotation '19, as their representatives always have something interesting to say.

At Flotation '15 Jacques Bezuidenhout of Clariant Germany, showed how Clariant collectors can be used as alternatives to xanthate collectors in traditional sulphide flotation applications. Xanthates, first used in flotation in 1924, are reported to be the most widely used of the thiol collectors. They are therefore widely considered to be the most important collectors for sulphide mineral flotation applications. It is nevertheless Clariant’s experience that there is an increasingly strong push against using xanthate collectors in both new and existing flotation plants. Clariant Mining Solutions, in order to address this unmet need, therefore developed a series of liquid collectors, soluble in water, which are able to completely replace various xanthate collector types in practice.

At Flotation '17 Linda Mahlangu, of Clariant Southern Africa, reviewed the potential of phosphoric acid esters for the flotation of oxidised copper minerals. Low grade oxide copper mineral flotation dates back almost 70 years. In the 1960’s the process involved 2 basic flotation methods (i) fatty acid flotation of oxide copper minerals and (ii) sulphidization of oxide copper minerals followed by flotation using sulphydryl collectors such as xanthates. Over the years the use of fatty acids to concentrate the copper oxides lost its popularity, with most operations preferring the controlled potential sulphidisation method. Linda showed how phosphoric acid esters, which have proven effective in selectively floating carbonates in the reverse flotation of phosphates, can be used as alternative collectors for oxide copper mineral flotation, particularly for carbonates such as malachite.

I'm sure that we can look forward to more innovative solutions at Flotation '19.

Current Flotation '19 sponsors

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