FLOTATION TECHNOLOGY
Caught in a bubble
Metso Concorde Cells TM in a copper mine in Zambia
While conventional mechanical flotation cells are still deemed the low risk, high throughput workhorses, novel technologies are bringing more options and more flexibility in the market – Paul Moore reports
While new flotation technologies are definitely making an impact in the industry, both as part of novel future flowsheets as well as in fine and coarse flotation, the workhorses of flotation are still very much large mechanical flotation cells. Alejandro Yáñez, Metso Senior Manager- Concorde Technologies told IM:“ It is worth pointing out that we now have over 50 years of developing and refining mechanical flotation cells, and our large TankCell ® units remain the baseline for any mineral processing flowsheet. For rougher circuits and especially large throughput- low grade copper and other mines, you are only going to be able to achieve the required tonnages today with these cells. But the new technologies are also playing an increasingly important role – so we work with customers closely to understand their ore types so that we can complement the TankCell with Concorde Cell for fines and ultra fines as well as our new coarse particle flotation( CPF) solution.”
Yáñez adds:“ There is also the issue of perceived risk for clients in dealing with new technologies- when you’ re building a mine, there is a lot of work at pilot scale and then you need to scale this up to plant level to prove you can get the expected performance.
These large mechanical cells are also very flexible in dealing with real life variability in ores as mining progresses and often there are subtle changes in things like mineralogy. And development hasn’ t stood still, we offer single TankCells up to 630 m 3, with large sizes allowing customers to increase efficiency and reduce footprint. But it’ s not just being making them bigger – we have made some major advances in other areas, such as the FloatForce ®+ next-generation mixing mechanism and FrothSense + flotation monitoring which utilises new capabilities with AI neural network, multiple regions of interest and froth height measurement. FloatForce + is being validated today in existing operations and going forward will be introduced to greenfield sites once we have enough performance data. At the same time, the Concorde Cells are often being introduced with TankCells as scavenger cells, which provide some buffer capacity against variation in the head grade, grind size, feed rate, liberation degree, mineralogy, reagents among others – very much a low risk, high potential reward for mineral processing flowsheets.”
Today there is major flotation technology demand across both greenfield flowsheets and also existing mine expansions and optimisations. And there is a place for both conventional and new technology, which is being recognised in flowsheet decisions being made – as an example TankCell mechanical cells and high-intensity Concorde Cell units are reported within flowsheets for operations such as Reko Diq, Lumwana and Yanqul. These uses are outlined in the respective project technical reports.
IM also spoke to Nathalie Kupka – Metso Business Manager for New Flotation Technologies, who looks after the commercial aspects of these new technology implementations and product launches.
She had this to say:“ We have been focusing on investigating the different types of flowsheets that we could offer to our customers. We are guided by the ore first and foremost and looking at what kind of duties suit the new technologies so that we can maximise profitability and sustainability but still keep the risk at a reasonable level. The Concorde Cell is usually standalone, so it’ s easier to fit it into a circuit and we have seen that the scalper duty has been very efficient for the Concorde both in the rougher and in the cleaner circuits. It’ s very selective, so usually it’ s good to put it in the front. And then we use the mechanical cells behind as a buffer for the less floatable material. There are already Concorde units running in Africa, Australia, Europe and the Americas in these types of duties.”
She continues:“ We’ ve accumulated a lot of experience with the Concorde in the cleaner duties, but we are starting to get experience also on the rougher scalper duties and we’ ve been able to see that it works very well as it can produce final concentrate grade for very high recoveries. I would add that in our Concorde installations and even in our test work, we have a lot of experience across the different types of ores including base metals, precious metals, iron ore and industrial minerals, which shows that the Concorde is very flexible and adaptable.”
The introduction of new technologies in some cases has not been helped by some which have not met expectations. Yáñez:“ These delay others as it means clients want extra validation and more piloting plus the decision making to introduce these new technologies into the next flowsheet takes longer. But even if it is harder, you can still see that the industry is very hungry for new ways of doing things and from our side, we continue to get a huge amount of interest on the Concorde Cell and our CPF solution.”
As of now, the conventional approach to CPF has relied on fluidisation. Kupka:“ We’ re not using fluidised beds at all, which makes our circuit that much simpler. When you’ re looking at implementing our coarse particle flotation together with the Concorde and mechanical TankCells, the overall flowsheet that we are offering is much easier to install and factor in more than what you could find
International Mining | OCTOBER 2025