An experimental study of the recovery of hydrophilic silica fines in column flotation

This paper presents results of tests performed to investigate the effect of gas rate (1.2–2.5 cm/s), hydrophilic fines content (5–20% w/w silica) and froth depth (10–30 cm) on fines recovery in a laboratory-scale flotation column operating without wash-water addition and absence of floatable particles. A model was developed based on the entrainment coefficients presented by [Trahar, W.J., 1981. A rational interpretation of the role of particle size in flotation. International Journal of Mineral Processing 8, 289–327], which describes the mass contribution of the different size classes to the solids recovered in the concentrate. The entrainment model of [Zheng, X., Johnson, N.W., Franzidis, J.P., 2006. Modelling of entrainment in industrial flotation cells: water recovery and degree of entrainment. Minerals Engineering 19, 1191–1203] was also tested. The results show both models described well the dependence of the mass flow rate of hydrophilic solids in the concentrate.