METHOD OF SEPARATING MULTICOMPONENT MIXTURE BY FLOTATION Russian patent published in 2001 - IPC

FIELD: nonferrous metallurgy, particularly, methods of separation of copper-nickel converter matte into copper and nickel concentrates; applicable at concentration mills in mineral concentration by flotation. SUBSTANCE: method of separation of multicomponent mixture of hydrophobic and hydrophilic components, mainly, in column-type machines includes operation for feed preparation from mixture of working components of preset particle size and flotation fluid containing chemical and physical ingredients; supply of feed to upper zone of flotation machine to under foam layer; supply of air through dispenser to lower zone of flotation machine; removal of foam product with hydrophobic components for further processing from upper zone; and withdrawal of cell product containing hydrophilic components from lower zone of flotation machine. Working pulp of flotation machine is recirculated in closed circuit and saturated with dissolved process at excessive pressure. Pulp is taken from periphery of middle active zone of flotation column and supplied under pressure to aerator and atomized in it. Supplied also to aerator under excessive pressure is process gas. Pressure of pulp at its input into aerator is maintained above pressure of gas found in aerator, and gas pressure in aerator is maintained at least of 0.12 MPa. Pulp saturated with dissolved gas is withdrawn from aerator. Pulp pressure is reduced to working value in flotation machine and, at decreased pressure, pulp saturated with liberating gas is introduced to center of flotation machine, to its middle zone, above level of pulp withdrawal. Process gas supplied to aerator may be used in the form of nitrogen or inert gas. It is good practice to introduce additional operation of control flotation of cell product with supply to aerator of hydrogen. In this way, electrochemical potential of pulp particles is corrected and metals capable of actively changing the physico-chemical properties, for instance, metals of platinum group are withdrawn to foam layer. EFFECT: improved pulp filling with gas in flotation machine in the form of finely dispersed gas bubbles. 3 cl, 1 dwg, 2 tbl