Mineral Processing & Extractive Metal. Rev., 27: 87-97, 2006 : Copyright @ Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ferent ISSN: 0882-7508 print/1647-7401 online DOI: 10.1080/08827500500209231 DISSOLVED GAS FLOTATION IN MINERAL PROCESSING TURGUT YALCIN Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada AMY BYERS Inco, Ltd., Thompson, Manitoba, Canada Potential use of dissolved gas bubbles in mineral flotation processes was investigated by conducting tests on the copper-nickel ore of Inco Lid. in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Such bubbles were gener- ated by pressurizing the ore pulp in an air or argon atmosphere at a 276kPa gauge (40 psig) for a period of about I min and then releasing the pressure by discharging the pressurized pulp into a column where flotation took place. Based on the conclusions of an earlier work, dissolved gas bubbles were employed together with conventional bubbles, the latter produced by a gas sparger located inside the flotation column. The presence of dissolved gas bubbles in the flotation pulp was found to have a significant impact, parti cularly when argon was used as the flotation gas, resulting in substantially higher grades and recoveries in the concentrate. At the same time, mass recoveries by size showed a 20% increase across all sizes when air was used as the flotation gas and a 40-100% increase in the case of argon. Keywords: flotation, copper-nickel ore, dissolved gas, bubbles, argon ‘This study was undertaken to address the long-standing problem of fine particle recovery in flotation processes. Studies have shown that conventional flotation performs poorly below a particle size of about Address correspondence to Turgut Yalcin, School of Engineering, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6, Canada, E-mail: tyalcin@laurentian.ca88 T. YALCIN AND A. BYERS 10-15 pm (Jowett 1980; Trahar 1981), while many flotation plants today handle ores containing significant proportion of material in these sizes. Various explanations have been put forward for the poor recovery of fine particles (Fuerstenau 1980; Trahar 1981; Sivamohan 1990), but the pre- dominant reason appears to be the inability of fine particles to effectively collide with and attach to gas bubbles. In conventional flotation, parti- cles attach to air bubbles by colliding with them and piercing the liquid film that surrounds them. According to Yoon and Luttrell (1989), the probability of collision between particles and air bubbles is directly proportional to the square of the particle size and indirectly proportional to the square of the bubble size. This means that the probability of collision diminishes rapidly as the particle size gets smaller. Moreover, even when a collision does occur between a fine particle and a gas bubble, attachment might not necessarily take place because, due to its low momentum, a fine particle might not be able to overcome the surface tensional forces and break through the liquid barrier surrounding the bubble. One of the potential solutions to the problem of fine particle recov- ery is the use of dissolved gas bubbles. Such bubbles are generated by first dissolving a gas in the ore pulp and then releasing the pressure. As the dissolved gas comes out of solution during depressurization, it nucleates or precipitates on solid surfaces, thereby eliminating the need for bubble-particle collision for attachment (Klassen 1960). Figure 1 illustrates dissolved gas bubbles formed on a sample of pure pyrite after repeated depressurization. Figure 2 displays selectivity in bubble forma- tion on minerals of different type, obtained after single depressurization. The technology of dissolved gas flotation has been practiced in industry for a long time, but mainly for the removal of particulates from waste liquids (Tchobanoglous and Burton 1991) where total particle recovery is the objective, without any consideration for selectivity. Bubble generation from dissolved gas for mineral flotation purposes can be traced back to the beginnings of froth flotation, when Francis Elmore, in 1904, produced bubbles by applying vacuum over the flotation pulp in addition to the use of acids (Crabtree and Vincent 1962), but the idea was short-lived. The usefulness of dissolved gas bubbles in ore flotation was mentioned by Klassen in 1948 (Klassen and Mokrousov 1963) but, apart from occasional visits to this concept by various researchers, not much progress has been recorded in this area since that time. The topic is, however, receiving a renewed interest. For example, Zhou et al.DISSOLVED GAS FLOTATION 89 Figure 1. Dissolved gas bubbles formed on a 15-mm pyrite particle (after multiple depressurization). (1994a, 1994b, 1997) have investigated the role and importance of gas nucleation that is claimed to occur within conventional flotation machines and a work has been described by Negeri et al. (2003) concern- ing the use of dissolved gas bubbles in flotation. The gas dissolution process, which is an essential step in dissolved gas flotation, was studied extensively and reported in an earlier publi- cation (Yalcin et al. 2002). The same study also looked into the applica- bility of dissolved gas flotation by testing it on an iron ore composed of primarily magnetite and quartz. The ore was subjected to reverse flotation by three different methods including conventional flotation, dissolved gas flotation, and a combination of dissolved gas and conventional flotation. The third method involved the use of dissolved gas bubbles in combination with conventionally generated bubbles. A comparison of these three methods indicated that the best results were obtained from the combined method, yielding the highest silica grade and recovery in the froth product that formed the tailings.90 T. YALCIN AND A. BYERS © formation of dissolved gas bubbles on minerals (after single depressurization). EXPERIMENTAL Equipment Figure 3 provides a schematic illustration of the experimental setup that was used in this study. The setup consisted of a 95.25-mm dia. x 965.2-mm ht. cylindrical pressurization vessel (item 4) where the gas was dissolved under pressure and a 50.8-mm dia. x 1000-mm ht. cylin- drical flotation column (item 8) where the process of flotation was car- ried out. The two units were interconnected via suitable g and valves. Pulp was continuously circulated through the pressure vessel by means of a pump in order to agitate it and thereby create a large gas-liquid interface to facilitate dissolution. Ore Sample The potential benefits and usefulness of dissolved gas flotation were explored by conducting tests on a sample of INCO Ltd.'s copper-nickel ore, taken from their rod mill fecd at the Clarabelle Mill in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The sample assayed 0.88% Cu and 0.87% Ni, andDISSOLVED GAS FLOTATION a1 1 Compressed gas inlet 2 Pressure gauge 3 Water inlet 4 Pressurization vessel 5 Pressure release valve 6 Pulp feed funnel 7 Pump 8 Flotation column 9Gas sparger 10 Vacuum jar | 40 Figure 3. Experimental setup. was reduced to 98% —37m prior to flotation. The principal minerals in the ore consisted of pentlandite [(Ni, Fe)9Ss], chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), pyrrhotite (FegSs), and several nonsulphide gangue minerals such as quartz, feldspar, mica, graphite, talc, and chlorite. Since the main objective of this study was to find out and demonstrate whether the fine particle recovery could be improved with the use of dissolved gas bubbles, a fine feed was chosen for flotation, without consideration of ore liberation characteristics. Methodology For each flotation test, an appropriate amount of chemically conditioned and pH-regulated ore pulp was prepared and pressurized at 276kPa gauge (40 psig) under an air or argon atmosphere. The pressurized pulp was then released into the flotation column where the material separated into concentrate and tailings products. Flotation pH was 9.3, obtained with the addition of lime/sulphuric acid. Sodium isobutyl xanthate92 T. YALCIN AND A. BYERS served as collector and Dowfroth 250 C as frother, each at a dosage of 100 g/t. Conventional flotation was conducted following exactly the same procedure as in dissolved gas flotation, but without the application of pressure. Bubbles used for conventional flotation were gencrated by means of a ceramic gas sparger placed inside the flotation column, The flotation pulp was fed into the column until it reached a height of 500 mm, occupying a volume of approximately 1 L. Flotation products were analyzed for their copper and nickel assays using a Perkin-Elmer Model 3110 Atomic Absorption Spectrophot- ometer (Perkin Elmer, Inc., Boston, USA). Particle size analyses were performed using a Microtrac Model $3000 Laser Particle Size Analyzer (Microtrac, Inc., Montgomeryville, USA). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Grade-Recovery Performance The effectiveness of dissolved gas flotation was first evaluated on the basis of concentrate grades and recoveries obtained. Since the previous tests on an iron ore (Yalcin et al. 2002) had indicated that dissolved gas bubbles would perform best in the presence of conventional bubbles, only the combination of dissolved gas and conventional flotation was considered, and comparisons were made between this combined method and the conventional flotation only. Figure 4 shows the results obtained from flotations conducted in air and argon atmospheres. It can be seen that the combined dissolved gas and conventional flotation in argon yielded the highest grades and recoveries. Improvements over conven- tional flotation ranged from 19% to 28% in grades and from 34% to 43% in recoveries. Better grades might have been the result of lower gangue recovery (such as pyrrhotite) due to a nonoxidizing environment and higher recovery of the copper and nickel minerals due to the pres- ence of dissolved gas bubbles. Higher mineral recoveries also reflected on the overall mass recovery of concentrate, as illustrated in Figure 5. For sulphide flotations, use of an inert gas, particularly nitrogen, prob- ably due to its lower cost, has also been considered by others (c.g., Rybas et al. 1993; Agar et al. 1996; Clark et al. 2000) and found to be beneficial. Fine Particle Recovery The fundamental premise of the dissolved gas flotation is the improve- ment of fine particle recovery. In order to test and verify this hypothesis,DISSOLVED GAS FLOTATION 93 z am) “a i i canon 9 | ioe 3: = el ; : La 2 z2| ws = am S| aoe ge ak EB cacon FS a || | scons 3 Bs Le co 2 a iS 0 cewerterat Sonvndonal = © Genvantonat Cometona | bere Reaton Lise Rowton Figure 4. Comparisons of concentrate grades and recoveries. mass recoveries were determined for various size ranges, as displayed in Figure 6. As in the case of grade-recovery performance, the combined method of dissolved gas and conventional flotation in argon was superior, provi- ding significantly higher mass recoveries at all sizes. Figure 7 shows the 25 > 20 3 $ 8 15 2 se 10 5 o Conventional Conventional + Flotation Dissolved Gas Flotation Figure 5. Comparisons of concentrate mass recoveries,94 T. YALCIN AND A. BYERS an yee ‘ae Eu irs | or an we) EE sem agence a gi Caen! Garver ¢ cavern ¢ sma” Soca oad anata Tan ey xs Bs at & gn A738. wae Bg) sane paper aa k sarc fo) | I | ferred Conertionat Conweoitonal = * exam i Sonic” SATS a ro rae cee Figure 6. Comparisons of mass recoveries from various size ranges. improvements achieved in recovery as a result of the use of dissolved gas bubbles. In the case of flotation with air, improvement was uniform at about 20% across all particle sizes. In an argon atmosphere, however, increasingly higher recoveries occurred with decreasing particle size, 20 |¢—»—_*#___¢@ ___| 0 2 120 BS 100 e £8 so HH eo «AIR co ¢ ARGON 3B 4 2 Ss = [ Use of Dissolved - Gas Bubbles 0 10 20 30 40 Particle Size (um) Figure 7. Effect of dissolved gas bubbles on recovery byDISSOLVED GAS FLOTATION 95 R88 AIR —=—ARGON| asa Total Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L) ° 8 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 Pressurization Time (min) Figure 8. Gas dissolution rates at an applied pressure of 276 kPa gauge (40 psig). thus proving the effectiveness of dissolved gas bubbles in the flotation of fine particles. Gas Dissolution and Consumption Dissolution of gas during the pressurization of flotation pulp was moni- tored by dissolved O2 measurements. Figure 8 shows the total dissolved > as a function of pressurization time at an applied pressure of 276 kPa gauge (40 psig) and indicates that saturation is reached within about 1 min, implying a rapid dissolution rate. In the case of argon, dissolved Oy decreased as the O2 was released from the solution into the argon atmosphere. Based on Henry's Law calculations (Washburn 1928; Perry and Chilton 1973), at a pressurization pressure of 276 kPa gauge (40 psig), the total dissolved gas in the flotation pulp amounted to 83 mg/L for air and 464 mg/L for argon. Conventional bubbles were generated by applying a gas flow rate of 2.5 scfh for a flotation period of 2 min, which translated into a gas consumption rate of 3.0g/L of pulp for air and 4.2 g/L of pulp for argon. CONCLUSIONS This study has clearly demonstrated that dissolved gas bubbles can sig- nificantly improve flotation performance, particularly with respect to96 T. YALCIN AND A. BYERS the recovery of fine particles. In the case of copper-nickel ore flotation, best results were achieved when the dissolved gas bubbles were used together with conventional bubbles in an argon atmosphere. 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