Effects of nanobubble and hydrodynamic parameters on coarse quartz flotation

Quartz, the second most abundant mineral in the earth's crust, is a gangue mineral in practically every flotation process. Coarse quartz flotation has been a long standing problem in various mineral processing plants to reduce milling cost and increase valuable mineral recovery. Based on this, the effects of nanobubbles(NBs) and hydrodynamic parameters on coarse quartz particle flotation were systematically investigated. Mechanical flotation experiments were carried out using the 7 cm and 9 cm diameter impellers in order to produce different hydrodynamic conditions. 900–1300 rpm impeller speeds were used for the 7 cm diameter impeller and 554–786 rpm for the 9 cm diameter impeller. The results show that the presence of NBs increased the flotation recovery of à425 + 106 lm quartz by up to 21%. For the7 cm diameter impeller, the maximum flotation recoveries of 86.4% and 98% were obtained in the absence and presence of NBs at Reynolds number(Re) of 81,000 and 66,000, respectively. For the 9 cm diameter impeller, the maximum recoveries of 86.3% and 97.5% were obtained in the absence and presence of NBs at Re of 90,000 and 75,000, respectively. NBs increased the flotation rate constant up to 36%.

Extraction and stripping of Cu and Ni from synthetic and industrial solutions of Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine containing Cu, Ni, Fe and Zn ions

The extraction and stripping of Cu and Ni ions from synthetic and industrial solutions of Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine containing Cu(770 mg/L),Ni(3200 mg/L),Fe(800 mg/L)and Zn(200 mg/L)were comprehensively investigated using D2 EHPA,LIX 984,Cyanex 302,Chemorex CP 150 and Acorga 5774 diluted in kerosene.The influential parameters such as mixing speed and time,concentration of extractant,p H and temperature were considered in extraction stage.Furthermore,stripping of Cu and Ni was examined using different inorganic and organic acids(sulfuric,hydrochloric,nitric and citric acids)with different concentrations.The results indicated that the highest extractions of Cu and Ni occurred within 3 min,with the mixing speed of 500 r/min,28℃and A/O ratio of 1:1.Moreover,Cu was extracted by LIX 984 at the concentration of 10%(v/v),whereas Ni was extracted by Cyanex 302 at the concentration of 30%(v/v),efficiently.The optimal p H for Cu and Ni extraction is in ranges of 2-3 and 4-5,respectively.Cu and Ni were selectively extracted with the recoveries of 85%,93%and 77%,82%from synthetic and industrial solutions containing Ni,Cu,Zn and Fe ions,respectively.The results of optimal condition showed that 96%of Ni and 93%of Cu were stripped from the synthetic and industrial solutions.Finally,four elements Zn,Fe,Cu and Ni were extracted in three stages with D2 EHPA,LIX 984 and Cyanex 302 extractants respectively with the least impurities.

Modeling and optimization of low-grade Mn bearing ore leaching using response surface methodology and central composite rotatable design

The application of leaching process to extracting Mn from a low-grade manganese ore was investigated using a software based design of experiments. Four main parameters, i.e. sulfuric acid concentration, oxalic acid concentration, time and temperature were considered in a central composite response surface design. The recoveries of Mn and Fe were selected as response of design. The optimum conditions under which the Mn and Fe recoveries were the highest and the time and temperature were the lowest were determined using statistical analysis and analysis of variance （ANOVA）. The results showed that Mn and Fe recoveries were 93.44% and 15.72% under the optimum condition, respectively. Also, sulfuric acid concentration was the most effective parameter affecting the process. The amounts of sulfuric and oxalic acid were obtained to be 7% and 42.50 g/L in optimum condition and the best time and temperature were 65 min and 63 ℃.

Kinetics of magnetite oxidation under non-isothermal conditions

Oxidation of magnetite concentrates, which occurs during the pellet induration process, must be deeply understood to enable the appropriate design of induration machines. In the present paper, the kinetics of the magnetite oxidation reaction was studied. Primary samples were obtained from the Gol-e-Gohar iron ore deposit. Magnetic separation and flotation decreased the sulfur content in the samples to be approximately 0.1wt%. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to measure mass changes during the oxidation of magnetite and, consequently, the conversion values. The aim of this study was to use isoconversional methods to calculate the kinetic parameters. The Coats-Redfern method was also used to obtain the activation energy. Thermogravimetric analyses were run at three different heating rates. The Coats-Redfern results were too ambiguous for a meaningful interpretation. In the case of the isoconversional method, however, the mean activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the oxidation reaction were obtained as 67.55 kJ and 15.32 × 108 min−1, respectively. Such a large activation energy implies that temperature strongly affects the reaction rate. The oxidation reaction exhibits a true multi-step nature that is predominantly controlled by chemical reaction and diffusion mechanisms.

Bonded-particle model calibration using response surface methodology

The bonded-particle model （BPM） is commonly used in numerical analysis of the mechanical behavior of rock samples. Constructing a BPM model requires specification of a number of microstructural parame- ters, including the parallel-bond tensile strength, parallel-bond cohesion strength, parallel-bond effective modulus, parallel-bond friction angle, and parallel-bond stiffness ratio. These parameters cannot be eas- ily measured in the laboratory or directly related to either measurable or physical material parameters. Hence, a calibration process is required to choose the values to be used in simulations of physical systems. In this study, response surface methodology along with the central composite design approach is used to calibrate BPMs. The sensitivities of the microparameters related to the uniaxial compressive strength （UCS） and elasticity modulus （i.e., the macroscopic responses of the models） are thoroughly scrutinized. Numerical simulations are performed to carefully assess the performance of the model. It is found that the elasticity modulus is highly correlated with the parallel-bond effective modulus. In addition, the parallel- bond tensile and cohesion strengths are the two most significant microparameters with a considerable effect on the UCS. The predicted values determined by the proposed approach are in good agreement with the observed values, which verifies the applicability of the proposed method.