Mineral flotation—a study of the re-use and disposal of aqueous solutions containing organic reagents

Abstract

The fate of organic reagents added to a froth flotation process for the concentration of fluorite, barite and lead has been studied as an example of a unit process employing water as a transport medium. It has been shown that approximately half of the organic material added to the circuit was discarded in the mill tailings water—the other half being lost from solution within the circuit. Estimates have been made of the amounts removed in the different unit operations and of the amounts discarded in the final effluents from the tailings disposal system. The effluent from the operation studied has been shown to have a barely detectable effect on the organic levels in the river system into which it was discharged. BOD 5 and BOD 10 measurements have been made on fifteen of the commonest organic reagents used in the froth flotation process. A wide range of degradation behaviour is revealed. A survey has been made of the methods that have been adopted and proposed for the removal of residual organic reagents from froth flotation process waters and of the production of consistent supplies of water for re-use.