The relationship between the peak in air recovery and flotation bank performance

Air recovery, or the fraction of air entering a cell that overflows the cell lip as unburst bubbles, is an important measure of froth stability as it affects the flow of bubble surface to the concentrate. An experimental campaign was carried out over the first four cells of the rougher bank at a South African platinum mine in order to find the relationship between froth stability and flotation performance as a function of air flowrate. sults showed that a peak in air recovery was observed as the air rate increased. Furthermore, this corresponded to the air flowrate at which the highest overall recovery was obtained. This can be explained by understanding the resulting changes in the structural features of the froth such as bubble loading and the flow of bubble surface and suggests that improved flotation performance can be achieved by operating a bank under conditions that result in a maximum in froth stability.