FLOTATION
A new era for the BQR cell
For the latest on TAKRAF Group brand DELKOR and its increasingly popular BQR flotation cell , IM spoke to Rajiv Krishnamurthy , Sales Manager – Europe for DELKOR products
Q When was the basic BQR cell design originally developed and why was
the decision taken to refine the design ? A The original design of BQR flotation cell was made in 1996 by Bateman Equipment in collaboration with CSIRO . Bateman was then acquired in
2012 by TAKRAF owner Tenova . When developed , BQR boasted the advantage of an overhung stator and open rotor , which allowed the mechanism to be removed as one piece for maintenance outside cell without have a person entering into the cell . The overhung stator also allowed , in many cases , the restart of the mechanism under load . However , in the years after it was introduced , mine ore grades were decreasing and so the capacity of flotation plants increased , and the flotation cell sizes also started increasing . For cells larger than 70 m 3 , the removal of the mechanism in one piece demanded more head room in the flotation building . This was one of the main reasons for us at DELKOR to refine the design . We also wanted to up the competition by bringing in a new MAXGen mechanism to provide best-in-class metallurgical performance for coarse and fine particle flotation with lesser power consumption to support our customers ’ endeavours in sustainability .
Q Can you give more detail on what MAXGen does ?
A The MAXGen mechanism allows the stator to be fixed on the bottom of the tank , enabling the mine to remove the mechanism in parts for maintenance in a similar way to our major competitors and it also allows us to compete well in the size range larger than 70 m3 as well . MAXGen also offers best-in-the-class metallurgical performance focusing on generating optimum bubble size distribution enabling best bubble-particle interaction and consuming lesser power . We now have orders in execution or in the process of installation for BQR cell sizes up to 100 m 3 . The feedback from initial commercial installations in India , Australia and Spain have only confirmed what industrial trials of MAXGen mechanism had indicated its capability in achieving improved metallurgical performance like higher grades of concentrate with increased recoveries . The MAXGen mechanism is definitely playing a major role in allowing BQR to make more impact in flotation market .
Q Are there any recent installations or orders that you would say highlight the ability of BQR with MAXGen to compete on a level playing field ? A I would highlight recent orders in Australia for nickel and gold , silverlead and zinc in Europe and an order in PGM minerals in South Africa . Renowned engineering houses have been involved in all of these projects as EPC / EPCM so this only supports the fact that BQR equipped with MAXGen has the ability to play and compete on a level playing field with our well established competitors . containerised CoarseAir as well as a lab machine . On the other cell technologies , FLSmidth has six 1.5 m 3 containerised pilot cells capable of
UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY TO OUTLAST AND OUTPERFORM
info @ duratray . com running work on nextSTEP , WEMCO and WEMCO II set-ups . They are fitted with the tank , controls , dart valves , feed box – all the elements you have
duratray . com
on a full scale cell . Lelinksi : “ All you need is a slipstream feed , along with power and compressed air . While the pilot cell is small , it is still scalable up to industrial operation . It has its own froth overflow , and the same relative energy input . It allows testing at real plants with no impact on the main production . For mixedROW you can have two pilot rigs side by side with a feed distributor . FLSmidth has a dedicated group of people only working on pilot machine design , setup and rental then evaluation . All of our test equipment is about as plug and play as you can get , as well as fully scalable .” And pilot skids have been built to serve particular regions – FLSmidth has an RFC pilot and conventional
flotation pilot specifically for the Australian market , for example .
Eriez fulfilling a pressing market need with HydroFloat
Eriez Flotation has been paving the way with coarse particle flotation ( also referred to as recovery ) using its HydroFloat ® flotation technology in recent years – it had already been operating well in the phosphate industry for about 20 years . Then in 2018 , the HydroFloat was successfully implemented in the copper industry at Newcrest Cadia in Australia , and with Anglo American it now includes the Quellaveco copper mine in Peru , now the largest CPF plant in the world . It builds on HydroFloat success at Anglo ’ s El Soldado copper mine in Chile , which has the capacity to process approximately 30 % of that mine ’ s tailings . The Quellaveco CPF is ten times
The Eriez HydroFloat CPF-300
52 International Mining | OCTOBER 2022