The Characterisation of Flotation Froth Structure and Colour by Machine Vision (Chaco)

The European Union Long Term Research (LTR) project, concerning the characterization of flotation froth structure and color by machine vision (ChaCo), has been developed with the aim to point out new process parameters, based on froth image inspection, to integrate with the commonly utilized process variables detected for the control of the flotation processes. The main purposes of the project were: – to analyze the mineral concentration of the flotation froth from the color of froths of different structures; – to design an on-line froth analyzer by developing software for the color and structure analysis of the froth and for classification using statistical and neural network methods; – to develop process models and control methods utilizing the on-line froth analyzer. The resulting products have to be to installed and tested at the industrial flotation plants of Boliden (Sweden) and Outokumpu’s Pyhasalmi mine (Finland)