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Advances in Flotation Which Have the Potential to Address
the Challenges Associated with Energy Transition
Kym Runge, Liza Forbes, Susana Brito e Abreu, Mohsen Yahyaei
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), Sustainable Minerals Institute,
The University of Queensland, Australia
ARC Centre of Excellence on Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (CE200100009),
University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
ABSTRACT: The energy transition will require unprecedented quantities of metal. To help satisfy this demand,
it will be imperative that flotation be conducted optimally. The mining industry is currently undergoing a
transformation with many new technologies being developed that have the potential to improve flotation
performance. New flotation machines are emerging that can recover coarser and finer particles, traditionally
not recovered well during flotation. Flotation reagents with increased specificity have the potential to enable
selective separation of minerals of similar chemical structures. New comminution methods are improving the
liberation and thus the selectivity achievable in flotation. Advanced ore characterization tools and improved
methods of process measurement provide a means of better overcoming bottlenecks in our flotation processes.
This paper aims to provide an overview of these emerging new flotation technologies and outline the challenges
that must be overcome to enable fast adoption by what is a traditionally conservative mining industry.
INTRODUCTION
The mining industry faces the enormous challenge of pro-
ducing large quantities of critical minerals in a sustainable
manner to enable the world to meet global energy reduc-
tion targets over the next couple of decades. Flotation is the
most widely used separation method used by the mining
industry to upgrade ore and is also likely to be an important
beneficiation method for the processing of critical miner-
als required for the energy transition. It has therefore never
been more important that flotation processes are operated
to achieve maximum mineral recovery and to perform this
using the minimum of energy and water use.
There is scope for improvement in mineral recovery in
conventional flotation circuits, with about 10 to 30% of
the valuable mineral in the feed of these circuits typically
reporting to the tailings. To achieve improvements in flota-
tion recovery, one has to either:
• Improve the recovery of the types of particles lost to
tailings
• Minimise production of the types of particles lost to
tailings during upstream grinding, and/or
• Improve selectivity between the valuable mineral and
the gangue
Flotation is a strong function of the particle properties
(size, liberation and surface speciation) and the hydrody-
namic environment in which flotation is conducted. This is
because these properties affect the probabilities associated
Advances in Flotation Which Have the Potential to Address
the Challenges Associated with Energy Transition
Kym Runge, Liza Forbes, Susana Brito e Abreu, Mohsen Yahyaei
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), Sustainable Minerals Institute,
The University of Queensland, Australia
ARC Centre of Excellence on Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (CE200100009),
University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
ABSTRACT: The energy transition will require unprecedented quantities of metal. To help satisfy this demand,
it will be imperative that flotation be conducted optimally. The mining industry is currently undergoing a
transformation with many new technologies being developed that have the potential to improve flotation
performance. New flotation machines are emerging that can recover coarser and finer particles, traditionally
not recovered well during flotation. Flotation reagents with increased specificity have the potential to enable
selective separation of minerals of similar chemical structures. New comminution methods are improving the
liberation and thus the selectivity achievable in flotation. Advanced ore characterization tools and improved
methods of process measurement provide a means of better overcoming bottlenecks in our flotation processes.
This paper aims to provide an overview of these emerging new flotation technologies and outline the challenges
that must be overcome to enable fast adoption by what is a traditionally conservative mining industry.
INTRODUCTION
The mining industry faces the enormous challenge of pro-
ducing large quantities of critical minerals in a sustainable
manner to enable the world to meet global energy reduc-
tion targets over the next couple of decades. Flotation is the
most widely used separation method used by the mining
industry to upgrade ore and is also likely to be an important
beneficiation method for the processing of critical miner-
als required for the energy transition. It has therefore never
been more important that flotation processes are operated
to achieve maximum mineral recovery and to perform this
using the minimum of energy and water use.
There is scope for improvement in mineral recovery in
conventional flotation circuits, with about 10 to 30% of
the valuable mineral in the feed of these circuits typically
reporting to the tailings. To achieve improvements in flota-
tion recovery, one has to either:
• Improve the recovery of the types of particles lost to
tailings
• Minimise production of the types of particles lost to
tailings during upstream grinding, and/or
• Improve selectivity between the valuable mineral and
the gangue
Flotation is a strong function of the particle properties
(size, liberation and surface speciation) and the hydrody-
namic environment in which flotation is conducted. This is
because these properties affect the probabilities associated