A modelling approach using a backcalculated induction time to predict recoveries in Flotation

The current modelling flotation approach of the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) predicts recoveries in a flotation circuit using a lumped parameter called the floatability of mineral particles (P) which has no direct physical meaning and is assumed to be conserved in flotation circuits in the absence of regrinding or change in chemical environment. In this paper, the original definition of P as the efficiency of flotation was resurrected. Fundamental models of particle collection by bubbles were applied to an industrial data set from a down-the-bank flotation survey of the first four cells of the galena rougher circuit at BHP Billiton's Cannington operation in Australia. The floatability of mineral particles P was no longer treated as a lumped parameter but described by the physical measurable inputs of the models. Induction time as a model parameter was backcalculated from knowledge of the experimental data and application of the collection model. The assumption that the induction time of a size-by-liberation class at fixed chemistry was conserved allowed prediction of galena recoveries in the circuit. It was found that the modelling approach gave results that were consistent with the current model that treats P as a lumped parameter, conserved in a flotation circuit. The new modelling approach carries the advantage that it can provide knowledge of the boundaries of the assumptions in the current model