A method for separating a calcite-rich low-grade fluorite barite paragenic ore, includes the following steps: S1, crushing; S2, performing classification on a crushed ore to obtain a fine-grained ore, a medium-grained ore and a coarse-grained ore; S3, performing jigging gravity separation on the medium-grained ore and the coarse-grained ore to obtain first barite concentrates and jigging tailings; S4, performing color sorting on the jigging tailings to obtain calcite minerals and color sorting tailings; S5, combining the fine-grained ore and the color sorting tailings, and then performing ore grinding to obtain feeding materials in flotation; S6, performing flotation on the feeding materials in flotation to obtain fluorite concentrates and flotation tailings; S7, performing chute gravity separation on the flotation tailings to obtain second barite concentrates and chute tailings. The method achieves an effect of obtaining high-quality acid-grade fluorite concentrates (CaF.sub.2≥98%).

The disclosure relates to a method for the beneficiation of an ore in a froth flotation process. The method comprises contacting an ore in a liquid medium to a collector composition comprising a plant-derived liquid decarboxylated rosin acid (DCR) collector. The DCR comprises 40 to 100 wt. % of tricyclic compounds having 18-20 carbon atoms, one or more C═C groups, and m/z (mass/charge) value of 220-280. The DCR has an oxygen content of <5%, a density of 0.9 to 1.0 g/cm.sup.3 at 20° C., and an acid value of <50 mg KOH/g.

A method of recovering gold and copper from a sulfide ore includes (a) removing valuable fines from a product stream from a comminution circuit, such as a crushing and milling circuit, for run of mine ore and producing a valuable fines concentrate stream and (b) processing the remaining comminution product stream after valuable fines removal and producing a valuable coarse concentrate stream.

THIS invention relates to a process for the enhanced recovery of chromite and platinum group metals (PGMs) from a mixed chromite/PGM ore. Ore is ground 12, classified 14, to produce a coarse fraction and a fine fraction 36. The coarse fraction is subjected to gravity separation 16 and coarse particle flotation 20 to obtain a chrome concentrate and a PGM concentrate. The fine fraction 36 and PGM concentrate are ground 28, and subjected to conventional flotation 30 to obtain a PGM concentrate product 32. The benefits of this novel configuration of gravity concentration and coarse flotation technologies, as applied to both chromite and PGM recovery, are higher recoveries of chromite in a saleable concentrate, higher recoveries of PGMs and base metals, and lower chromite content in the PGM concentrate.

A fluidized-bed flotation unit, its use, a mineral processing apparatus, and a fluidized-bed flotation method are disclosed. The fluidized-bed flotation unit includes a tank for holding a volume of slurry. The tank includes a launder with a launder lip, a fine slurry outlet below the launder lip, and a coarse slurry outlet below the fine slurry outlet for discharging coarse output slurry from the volume of slurry. The fluidized-bed flotation unit includes a solid-liquid separation arrangement configured to collect output slurry from the volume of slurry via the fine slurry outlet and to separate suspended solids and flotation liquid from the output slurry to form a solids portion and a liquid portion.

THIS invention relates a method for processing a sulphide ore containing metal values comprising the integration of a sand heap leach (10) and a flotation process (12), providing a method which is suited to processing ores with significant quantities of leachable sulphides. The method includes a comminution step (14), and the classification of the comminuted ore into an oversize coarse fraction (16), a fine fraction (18) suitable for fine flotation and optionally an intermediate fraction (20) suitable for coarse flotation. A concentrate (30) containing iron sulphides from a fine flotation step (22) and optionally a concentrate (36) from a coarse flotation step (34) are blended with the oversize coarse fraction (16), to obtain a blended ore (39) is stacked and subjected to a heap leach process (40).

Disclosed is a method for optimizing a mineral recovery process from ore material using a flotation chamber. The method comprises implementing a machine learning model to determine operational parameters of the flotation chamber, for the mineral recovery process based on a geometry of the flotation chamber and properties of the ore material. The method further comprises simulating the mineral recovery process using ranges of the determined operational parameters to determine a factor representative of a relationship between a gas hold-up value and a bubble diameter value. The method further comprises calculating the gas hold-up value and the bubble diameter value based on determined the operational parameters and the determined factor. The method further comprises utilizing the determined gas hold-up value and bubble diameter value to determine optimized values of the operational parameters for the mineral recovery process by implementing a virtual sensor, to achieve higher throughput of recovered minerals from the ore material.

A minerals processing system (200, 300) comprising a flotation circuit (109) is characterized in that a dry grinding circuit precedes the flotation circuit (109). The dry grinding circuit may use a vertical roller mill (32) or roller grinder (302), and at least one dry air particle separation device (201, 304, 307) positioned between said vertical roller mill (32) or roller grinder (302) and the flotation circuit (109). The at least one dry air particle separation device (201, 304, 307) produces a dry fines stream (38) and a dry coarse stream (202). The coarse stream (202) is provided to the flotation circuit (109) to recover metal values, whereas the dry fines stream (38) circumvents the flotation circuit (109) and is combined with dewatered tailings (116) derived from material (110, 111) leaving the flotation circuit (109).

A flotation arrangement, a flotation plant and a method related thereto are disclosed. The flotation arrangement includes a first flotation section and a second flotation section. The arrangement further includes a dewatering system for separating solid material and liquid to obtain a dewatered solid material stream and a separated liquid stream, and the dewatering system is arranged before the second flotation section and connected thereto for leading said dewatered solid material stream to the second flotation section and the arrangement includes recovery means for recovering the separated liquid stream.

A cold water saponification method is disclosed. The method is for preferred use in industrial applications such as mining operations wherein saponification of fatty acids is required. Broadly, the method comprises the steps of filling a tank with a solution comprising water, a base and fatty acids, installing a mixer capable of creating a vortex in order to effectively saponify fatty acid particles. The use of a high-shear mixer installed vertically has been proven successful in saponifying fatty acids in cold water.