Search

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the air dispersion parameters determined for industrial Brazilian flotation circuits. The rougher and scavenger circuits of RPM, Taquari-Vassouras, Copebras and Fosfertil-Catalão (today Vale Fertilizantes) were investigated. For RPM and Taquari-Vassouras, the superficial gas velocity (Jg), gas hold-up (&egr;g), bubble size diameter (d32) and superficial area bubble flux (Sb were measured, whereas only the Jg and &egr;g were measured in the other circuits. The results pointed out that, except for RPM, all the circuits presented very low values for the air dispersion parameters. Taquari-Vassouras presented the lowest values for average Jg and gas hold-up: 0.05 cm/s and 5%, respectively. The highest value was presented for the rougher circuit of Cope-bras, 1.17cm/s, while RPM presented the highest values for &egr;g and bubble size, respectively 31% and 2.61mm. In the circuits where the calculation of the Sb parameter was possible, the results obtained lay in a range lower than those re-ported in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the characterization of fines stocked in a pond as tailings from an iron ore concentrator. The characterization consisted of size analyses by wet screening, chemical analyses by ICP, and mineralogical analyses by X-ray diffraction. The next stage consisted of technological tests. Two concentration routes were evaluated at bench scale: the first (route I) consisting of classification (0.15mm), magnetic separation (-1.0+0.15mm), desliming and flotation (-0.15mm); and the second (route II) consisting of magnetic separation (-1.0mm global), aiming at achieving a concentrate adequate for use in the metallurgical industry. The size distribution of the iron ore fines indicated 8.21% above 0.150mm and 58.81% passing 0.045mm. The calculated average chemical composition of the sample is 48.08% Fe, 20.58% SiO2, and 3.16% Al2O3. The iron minerals identified by X-ray diffraction were: hematite, martite, magnetite, and goethite; and the detected gangue minerals were: quartz, gibbsite, and kaolinite. The best performance came from route II, magnetic separation only: weight recovery 68.00%, metallurgical recovery 90.81%, 67.54% Fe, 1.50% SiO2, 0.49% Al2O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]