Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and recovery, and therefore a function of the secondary variables, could then be
maximized on-line.
Implementing a rigorous optimization plan requires investments involving finan-
cial (purchase of a simulator, hiring of a consulting firm,
etc.
), human and time
resources (for implementation and minimum maintenance). However, the rewards,
assessed in terms of:
• lower production costs (reagent consumption,
etc.
);
• better metallurgical performance (grade and recovery);
• lower product quality variability;
•benefits on personnel (availability, training on new technologies,
etc.
);
•
fewer environmental impacts, etc;
may exceed original expectations and the payback period tends to be much shorter
than in the case of major capital investments (a few weeks to a few months). This can
partly be explained by the fact that tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars
of computer equipment, controllers, distributed control systems, programable logic
controllers, and sensors are already available in mineral processing plants and, in
most cases, only their simplest features are being used while the most powerful
ones are often “left on the shelf”, mainly due to the lack of human resources. In
other words, many control wares have already been paid for, but their potential has
not been fully exploited.
References
[1]
Boutin P, Tremblay R (1964) Extraction of bitumen and oil from Athabaska tar sands. Cana-
dian Patents CA680576, 1964-02-18
[2]
Tremblay R, Boutin P (1967) Method and apparatus for the separation and recovery of ores.
Canadian Patent No. 694547, 1964-09-15
[3]
Wheeler DA (1985) Column Flotation - the original column. In Proceedings of 2nd Latin
American Congress in Froth Flotation (S.H.Castro, J.Alvarez Eds.) 19-23 August, Chile.
Also in Developments in Mineral Processing, Vol.9, Elsevier 1988, 17-40
[4]
Cienski T, Coffin V (1981) Column flotation operation at Mines Gaspe molybdenum circuit.
Proceedings of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mineral Processors, CIM, Ottawa
(Canada), 240-262
[5]
Finch JA, Dobby G (1990) Column flotation. Pergamon Press, Oxford
[6]
Clingan BV, McGregor DR (1987) Column flotation experience at Magma Copper Co. Min-
erals and Metallurgical Processing 3: 121-125
[7]
Yianatos JB, Finch JA, Laplante AR (1987) The cleaning action in column flotation froths.
Trans. of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Section C96, C199-C205
[8]
Gorain BK, Franzidis J-P, Manlapig EV (1997) Studies on impeller type, impeller speed and
air flow rate in an industrial-scale flotation cell - Part 4: Effect of bubble surface area flux on
flotation performance. Minerals Engineering 10(4):367-379
[9]
Hernandez-Aguilar JR, Rao SR, Finch JA (2005) Testing the k-Sb relationship at the micro-
scale of laboratory. Minerals Engineering 18:591-598
[10]
Kratch W, Vallebuona G, Casali A (2005) Rate constant modeling for batch flotation, as a
function of gas dispersion properties. Minerals Engineering 18:1067-1076
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