It is already well established that the flotation efficiency of fine minerals can be significantly improved by adding a relatively small amount of microbubbles ( < 50 μm) to conventional coarse bubbles (>1 mm) normally used in flotation cells. To establish quantitative characteristics of this effect, the dependence of the flotation rate constant and recovery on microbubbles dosage was studied using fine quartz ( < 25 μm) samples in laboratory pneumomechanical and column flotation cells. It was found that, for pulp concentration in the range of 20–30 g L− 1, the flotation rate constant of the pneumomechanical flotation process is directly proportional to the microbubbles dosage. It was also found that the introduction of 0.25 L kg− 1 of microbubbles into the pulp before it is fed into the column flotation cell resulted in the recovery increasing from 77 to 89% for quartz concentration of 34 g L− 1 and from 66 to 87% for the quartz concentration of 68 g L− 1.
The present paper discusses the theoretical principles and also presents substantiating experimental data on the effectiveness of the turbulent microflotation for ultrafine mineral treatment. It is shown that it is quite feasible to achieve .80% recovery in 30-70 s when treating multiphase mixture in the turbulent flow if bubbles ,50 mm in diameter are used, and also the stages of introduction of microbubbles into the suspension and the recovery of the froth concentrate are separated in space and time from the pulp in the tubular static mixer.
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