Abstract
Flotation is used in mineral processing industries for separation of grains of valuable minerals from those of side minerals (Laskowski and Woodburn 1998). In the continuous flow flotation cell (Fig. 1), air is pumped into a suspension of ore and water. The desired mineral tends to adhere to air bubbles and rises to the froth layer where the concentrate floats over the edge of the cell; the main part of other minerals remains in the slurry. The separation of minerals requires that the desired mineral is water-repellent: in zinc flotation, this can be reached by conditioning chemicals as copper sulphate CuSO4; xanthate is needed to reach lower surface tension, etc.
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Hyötyniemi, H., Ylinen, R., Miettunen, J. (2001). Soft Computing at a Flotation Plant. In: Leiviskä, K. (eds) Industrial Applications of Soft Computing. Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, vol 71. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-1822-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-1822-2_9
Publisher Name: Physica, Heidelberg
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