The design and evolution of flotation circuits

We are in for an interesting Wednesday morning at Flotation '23 in November, where the theme will be flotation circuits and plant operations, commencing with a keynote lecture from Luis A. Cisternas, Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program on Mineral Processing Engineering at Universidad de Antofagasta, Chile.

The keynote will investigate the circuit design of polymetallic minerals, including desulfurisation, analysed from the point of view of the effect of stage recovery uncertainty, the impact of the design type on costs, energy use, and environmental effects and the influence of the design strategy applied. 

Luis will argue that the most widely used separation sequence in practice is the least efficient from the environmental and economic point of view and a new separation strategy will be proposed which delivers better results than traditional sequences. A design procedure for polymetallic flotation circuits will be presented, where desulfurisation is considered an integral part of the design.

This will be followed by a presentation from Jim Finch, Gerald G. Hatch Professor Emeritus and an Industry Professor of Mineral Processing at McGill University, Canada. He will ask whether flotation circuits have adapted considering their long history of modelling.

By integrating a measure of separation efficiency (SE) into linear circuit analysis a way to compare circuits will be introduced. One finding is that the 3-stage closed rougher-scavenger-cleaner (R-S-C) network provides the highest circuit SE. Reviewing 3-stage circuits in Canadian practice from the 1970s to the present Jim will show that about 40% continue to use this R-S-C arrangement. 

Some plants use the rougher-cleaner-cleaner/scavenger network and one example will be identified where the cleaner/scavenger is placed on the second cleaner stage rather than the first stage which is more common. That there may be an SE advantage to having the CS on the second cleaner will be explored, illustrating the utility of the comparison method.

We can expect much intense discussion on these two presentations, as well as on the papers that follow, detailing operational developments in flotation plants around the world. The session will be of particular value and interest to plant operators looking to improve their operations.

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