Column flotation of high grade fluorite without wash water addition

Abstract

The present paper presents the results of fluorite flotation carried out on a column cell without wash water addition. Concentrate flow was obtained by making tailing flows smaller than feed flows. Hence, part of the feed water was carried up within bubble wakes. No pulp/froth interface was established. A high recovery was obtained in a 2 m collection zone column. The recovery reached >80% with a grade of ∼90%. It was found that the recovery depended on the value of the difference between the feed flow and tailing flow. In addition, a straight line between the surface velocity of mineral and the recovery was found. It appears that a maximum capacity of solid is ∼10 g min−1 cm−2.