INNOVATIVE Mind Of A Washerwoman

                            FORTH FLOTATION METHOD

One can do wounder if he or she has a scientific temperament and is

attentive to observations. A washerwoman had an INNOVATIVE mind too.

While washing a miners overalls, she noticed that sand and similar

dirt fell to the bottom of the washtub. What was peculiar, the copper

bearing compounds that had come to the clothes from the mines, were

caught in the soapsuds and so they came to the top. One of her clients

was a chemist, Mrs. Carrie Everson. The washerwoman told her

experience to Mrs. Everson. The latter thought that the idea could be

used for separating copper compounds from rocky and earth materials on

large scale. This way an invention was born. At that time only those

ores were used for extraction of copper, which contained large amount

of the metal. Invention of the FORTH FLOTATION Method made copper

mining profitable even from the low-grade ores. World production of

copper soared and the metal became cheap.

The mining field wouldn’t be the same without this innovation, considered one of the greatest technologies applied to the industry in the twentieth century. Its consequent development boosted the recovery of valuable minerals like copper, for instance. Our world, full of copper wires used for electrical conduction and electrical motors, wouldn’t be the same without this innovative process.

During the forth flotation process, occurs the separation of several types of sulfides, carbonates and oxides, prior to further refinement. Phosphates and coal can also be purified by flotation technology.

                                       

During the process, four things happen: 

1. Reagent conditioning happens in order to achieve hydrophobic surface charges on the desired particles
2. Collection and upward transport by bubbles in contact with air or nitrogen
3. A stable froth formates on the surface of the flotation cell
4. There’s a separation of the mineral laden froth from the bath

1. The flotation process has three stages:

   1. Roughing
   2. Cleaning
   3. Scavenging

   Flotation can be performed by different types of machines, in rectangular or cylindrical mechanically agitated cells or tanks, columns, a Jameson Cell or deinking flotation machines.  The mechanical cells are based in a large mixer and diffuser mechanism that can be found at the bottom of the mixing tank and introduces air, providing a mixing action. The flotation columns use air spargers to generate air at the bottom of a tall column, while introducing slurry above and generating a mixing action, as well.
   Mechanical cells usually have a higher throughput rate, but end up producing lower quality material, while flotation columns work the other way around, with a lower throughput rate but higher quality material. The Jameson cell just combines the slurry with air in a downcomer: then, a high shear creates the turbulent conditions required for bubble particle contacting.

The process of froth flotation usually involves a series of steps:

1. the preparation of appropriate particle sizes of liberated components in the mixture of solids to be separated;
2. the creation of conditions favorable for the adherence of one or more components in the mixture of solids to attach to air bubbles; and
3. the formation of a stable froth containing one or more components existing on the surface of the agitated mixture of particles (the pulp) which can be removed (recovered).

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