Technical note: Measuring separation efficiency of flotation circuits using linear circuit analysis

Abstract

The paper introduces a way to use linear circuit analysis (LCA) to derive the separation efficiency of a flotation circuit. The method is for circuits comprising stages of mechanical cells in series which approach plug flow transport and permit stage recovery of two minerals to be related through a relative rate constant. Substituting the stage recoveries into the circuit equation derived from LCA gives the difference in circuit recoveries which is used as the measure of circuit separation efficiency. The procedure is illustrated for three 3-stage circuit configurations.