FLOTATION
Larger and early-duty applications of Jameson Cells are helping operations increase throughput . This cell increased Ero Copper ’ s Caraiba flotation plant throughput by 50 %
“ The modular design is ideal for tailing retreatment or run of mine projects . It can be relocated elsewhere as ore bodies deplete and repurposed to make feasible the next opportunity ”, says Anderson .
Anderson says both of these innovations are valuable to a third type of difficult ‘ deposit ’: tailings . An operation ’ s tailings losses are typically ultrafines and coarse composite particles . And the highly variable nature of the tailings size , location and value often means that processing tailings gets considered and then abandoned , regularly .
Conventional cells require a longer residence time and the cost of the plant may make them uneconomical for low-grade , finely disseminated feeds and the size may make them impossible in tight brownfield locations .
Anderson says the Jameson Cell has a longproven record in processing sub-10 micron feeds . “ It has faster kinetics and it floats whatever is floatable . So you add these two innovations and it ’ s a game changer . If it can process even more feed per unit of space , or be installed via a modular plant , then it can scale to any location and any size of tailings , economically , efficiently and profitably .” valuable materials and increase revenue . IM caught up with both Guillermo Bermudez , Product Director , Flotation at Metso and Christian Cardoso , Product Manager , Mechanical Flotation Services on this development .
Bermudez explained that for now this is a limited launch in that Metso is firstly focusing on the rotor , with the stator still under development . It is also working in certain ranges of sizes – focusing at the moment on the larger sizes . What were the project drivers ? He comments : “ FloatForce was launched back in 2006 and there have been a lot of technological advances since then – including better ways to optimise our existing solutions and equipment . And since that time there has been a significant positive shift towards sustainability . Absolutely 100 % of our flotation R & D across Metso is focused on Planet Positive . The already highly energy efficient original FloatForce was ahead of its time when launched and that is what enabled the success of newer and larger TankCell generations . Otherwise green thinking 20 years ago was lower down the priority list in the mineral processing industry – today it is one of the top drivers in technology development but never at the expense of efficiency , we want to increase efficiency and performance at the same time as making flotation more sustainable . We wanted to use the latest technology to see how we could improve this main component , the mixing mechanism , in conventional mechanical flotation as despite the emergence of new flotation methods , this still represents the vast majority of the installed base of cells . We set out to see what could we do to optimise the manufacturing processes , performance and power draw ?”
Cardoso added : “ Leading companies like Metso should be innovating wherever possible to help drive the industry forward . We were already best in class but we have a commitment to keep pushing the boundaries of performance . So our internal flotation experts began investigating potential areas of improvement . We have completed all the lab and desktop work for the rotor , as well as an industrial scale test , and are finalising the same for the stator . The final commercial launch will be in the coming months .”
Bermudez added : “ The merger of Metso and Outotec in 2020 also had an influence – it brought together the legacy flotation technologies from both companies , plus different perspectives from a lot of different people . There was more focus than before on making the retrofit truly plug and play from an installation point of view and along with that making it much more accessible from a maintenance and service perspective .”
In the early 2000s , CFD was also relatively new and the focus was still mainly on conceptualising a design and then make a model of it for trial with CFD mainly used for validation . Today , we start with CFD much earlier as the latest CFD software allows you to be much more agile and come up with new design variations in a matter of days , then we are able to make a shortlist after screening , make small versions for lab testing using 3D printing and then select one for industrial scale testing which for FloatForce + has been at some large base metal concentrator plants in Europe and the Americas . And there was the advantage of not starting the concept from scratch but using the already successful FloatForce as a baseline for optimization – and some things we have kept for example the separated air slots for slurry and air . The customer gets all the benefits of FloatForce with
FloatForce + - building on a firm foundation
Metso is also expanding its flotation portfolio in other ways including enhancing an already innovative component solution in the form of the FloatForce ® + mixing mechanism that takes the well established FloatForce and makes it even better . With FloatForce +, part of Metso ’ s Planet Positive offering , Metso introduces a plug-andplay solution that it says maximises metallurgical recovery , boosts pumping efficiency , and reduces energy consumption , helping customers recover
With FloatForce +, part of Metso ’ s Planet Positive offering , Metso introduces a plug-and-play solution that it says maximises metallurgical recovery , boosts pumping efficiency , and reduces energy consumption
OCTOBER 2024 | International Mining