Distribution of reagents down a flotation bank to improve the recovery of coarse particles

Collector and frother are commonly used to induce the floatability of valuable minerals in flotation plants. These reagents can be added in a conditioner prior to flotation or stage distributed along the flotation banks. A review of the literature and some experimental results obtained from laboratory and full-scale trials indicate that the way flotation reagents are distributed down a flotation bank can positively influence the flotation response of coarse particles. This paper summarizes these observations, which show that the distribution of reagents is a potential tuning variable for the optimization of the flotation process. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.