Evaluation of flotation circuit arrangement with integrated linear circuit analysis and signal flow graph- Case study: Qaleh-Zari copper factory

In flotation circuits, staged separation is used to produce a product with desired recovery and quality. Since usually million tons of mineral ore are upgraded in flotation circuits annually, achieving small improvement through the circuit re-arrangement can have substantial economic effect. In the other hand, there are various designs for a flotation circuit and finding the best combination experimentally is time consuming and costly. In this research, the principles of linear circuit analysis is used to develop a mathematical correlation between the rows of flotation circuit cells. This is performed by considering the transfer function for each cell row and then apply the appropriate criteria for evaluating the circuit transfer function. Since, signal flow graphs can be more easily and efficiently used for analytical method, it is replaced in block diagram for transfer function. This facilitates examination of the large and complex arrangements of flotation circuits. The arrangement of the Qaleh-Zari copper flotation circuit was evaluated by this method. The results showed that by modifying the flotation circuit arrangement, separation sharpness increased from 1.62 to 1.83. This increase can improve the separation of intermediate material in the flotation circuit. It was also shown that if the recovery is determined for each bank, the flow rate of output can be assessed and calculated precisely, and consequently the probable errors can be prevented. The results of this method can be used in circuit design or modification of plant circuit layout.