RU169718U1 - Babenko-Pershin device for concentration of polymetallic ores by pressure flotation - Google Patents

Abstract

This utility model relates to the field of ore processing, in particular for the processing of polymetallic ores, as well as for the extraction of fine mineral fractions during the processing of finely and finely disseminated ores and for the extraction of fine fractions of precious metals in conjunction with known methods, as well as independently from past wastes years. The proposed device is based on a new method of enrichment with direct flotation. The extraction of particles of the specified components does not depend on the size of the particles, but depends only on the degree of hydrophobicity of their surface. This is due to the fact that, in contrast to classical flotation, the inertial component is absent in the pressure flotation method, which in the classical flotation method is used to collide hydrophobized particles with air bubbles to form particle-bubble pop-up aggregates. The creation of such a pop-up unit in the pressure flotation method is carried out in a different way — by transferring air from the phase of a supersaturated air solution in the aqueous phase of the pulp to the gas phase on the hydrophobic surface of the particles to be recovered. Bubbles formed on the surface of the particles grow due to diffusion of air from the adjacent aqueous phase, supersaturated with air. The vertical pulp current organized in the flotation chamber, the resulting aggregates rise to the pulp surface, forming a foam layer. This layer is discharged into the foam collector, and the depleted pulp “chamber product” is poured into the pulp sump and then poured by gravity through a direct-acting regulator (in the form of a siphon) to the tailings dump. The formula includes 1 independent and 3 dependent points, and 8 illustrations are presented in the appendices .

Description

The proposed technical solution relates to the field of enrichment of polymetallic ores, in particular for the enrichment of finely and finely disseminated ores, as well as for the extraction of fine fractions of precious metals from ores and gold-containing sands in conjunction with known methods, as well as independently from the enrichment waste of previous years.

The only analogue that we adopted as a prototype is our patent for invention No. 2507007 “Method for the extraction of selected minerals from ore pulps by pressure flotation and a device for its implementation”, priority dated 08/16/2012, published on 02/20/2014, in bull. . No. 5. This invention is intended for mineral processing by a new method - pressure flotation.

This known device for ore dressing by pressure flotation includes two auxiliary units - a saturator of purified water with air under pressure and a contact pulp changer with flotation reagents, as well as a pneumatic column flotation machine.

In FIG. 1 shows an auxiliary known device for conditioning pulp: a pulp mixer with flotation reagents, and FIG. 2 shows a second auxiliary device-saturator of water by air under pressure.

The prototype includes a cylindrical body, jet and sequentially shelf pulp mixers, air-conditioned in the contact tank-mixer with flotation reagents, with water, saturated with air under pressure in the saturator. The shelf mixer is connected to a perforated pulp distributor fixed in the center of the flotation chamber above the stream of transport bubbles generated at the bottom of the flotation chamber by a dispersant of air supplied from the receiver, and the foam layer on the surface of the pulp is washed with clean spray water.

In the prototype, the pulp level in the flotation chamber was stabilized using a special automatic electronic control system for the outflow of the chamber product through an electromechanical valve at the bottom of the flotation chamber, connected to the electronic control unit. This unit is connected to the pulp level sensor mounted on the surface of the pulp in the flotamok. This system maintains the pulp level by dropping the chamber product as fresh portions of the mixture of pulp with saturated water arrive.

The disadvantage of this prototype is a rather complicated system for controlling the level of pulp upon receipt of its fresh portions. A level sensor installed on the surface of the pulp may malfunction due to the sticking of the solid phase of the pulp on it. In addition, with a lower discharge of the chamber product, it is possible that entrainment by the pulp stream of slowly emerging small particle-bubble aggregates that do not have time to adhere to the transport bubbles. In addition to this, a not very effective passive discharge of the foam product from the pulp surface into the foam collector through the flotation chamber can be noted.

To address the described disadvantages of the prototype, it is proposed to obtain the following new significant technical results:

extracting the specified components from the pulp and simplifying the control of the flotation concentration process.

These new significant technical results are achieved by introducing two new essential features into the first independent claim: “the flotation chamber is equipped in the upper part of the casing with a pulp sump, hermetically fixed coaxially to its external surface, the bottom outlet of which is connected to a direct-acting regulator in the form of a siphon, fixed externally at the surface of the pulp in the camera ”. The third technical insignificant result is the regulation of the outflow of the chamber product from the siphon depending on the performance of the camera on the pulp. This technical result is achieved by the fact that in the second paragraph of the formula, dependent on paragraph 1, an insignificant sign is included: “On the outer surface of the siphon that releases the chamber product from the flotation chamber, a coupling is movably fixed, which allows changing the level of the outflow of pulp from the siphon when changing the productivity of the flotation chamber on the pulp. "

The fourth non-essential technical result consists in the forced removal of the foam product from the surface of the pulp without its swirls with the pulp. This technical result is achieved by the fact that in the third paragraph of the formula, dependent on paragraph 1, an insignificant attribute is included: “On the outer surface of the pulp sump, a foam collector is sealed coaxially to its external surface, and a soothing grate is horizontally fixed on the surface of the pulp in the sump, on which crescent-shaped blades of the scraper mechanism. "

The fifth insignificant technical result is to overcome the friction of the chamber and foam products during their movement in the sump and foam collector. This technical result is achieved by the fact that in the 4th paragraph of the formula, dependent on item 3, an insignificant sign is included: “the bottom of the pulp sump has a bias towards the siphon of at least 20 degrees, and the bottom of the foam collector

has a slope of at least 30 degrees to the side opposite to the slope of the bottom of the sump of the pulp. "

To clarify the application material, the following figures are presented, showing known devices and the proposed:

FIG. 1 Well-known contact tank pulp mixer with flotation reagents.

FIG. 2 Known saturator for saturating water with air under pressure

FIG. 3 The inventive utility model "Device for ore concentration by pressure flotation."

FIG. 4 An inkjet mixer consists of: a) an inkjet mixer (in plan); b) the body of the jet mixer (vertical section).

FIG. 5 An annular perforated distributor of a mixture of pulp with saturated water in a flotation chamber (bottom view).

FIG. 6 The upper part of the photocamera of figure 3 (a) is a vertical section, b) is a perspective view with a section).

FIG. 7 Soothing grate over the surface of the pulp in the sump.

FIG. 8 Sickle blades of the scraper mechanism on the surface of the stilling grid in the sump of the pulp.

The pan mixer shown in FIG. 1, has a cylindrical body 1, which is equipped with a pipe 2 for feeding into the vat a mixture of pulp with selected flotation reagents. In the center of the tub, a hollow pipe 3 is fixed with holes 4 in its upper part. In the center of this pipe, a shaft 5 is fixed with an axial type mixer 6. In the upper part of the body, a pipe 7 is fixed for draining the finished air-conditioned pulp. An electric motor 8 is fixed above the housing, which rotates the shaft with a mixer through a belt drive.

Work contact tank mixer.

A mixture of pulp with metered quantities of selected flotation reagents enters through the pipe 2 into the hollow pipe 3. Here, under the action of the rotation of the mixer blades 6, the resulting pulp stream rises and pours out of the pipe openings 7 into the vat cavity, from where the pulp is again sucked into the mixer and poured out of holes 7 again. So, in the continuation of these cycles, particles

pulps repeatedly collide with molecules of flotation reagents, specially selected for the given recoverable components, and stick together with them.

Flotoreagents are collectors whose molecules have a bipolar structure consisting of a chemically active radical at one end attached to it by a linear hydrocarbon radical having extremely high hydrophobic properties.

With active mixing, these molecules collide with particles of selected components and adhere to them with chemically active radicals, and the hydrophobic hydrocarbon radicals of the molecule spread along the surface of the particle, giving this surface hydrophobic properties. Other flotation reagents, whose molecules are hydrophilic, adhere to the hydrophilic surface of waste rock particles, thereby enhancing the hydrophilic properties of their surface. As a result, particles of recoverable components acquire properties radically different from numerous particles of waste rock. Their fundamental difference lies in the fact that a very thin hydration shell is formed over the hydrophobic surface, consisting of water molecules very weakly connected with this hydrophobic surface, and a powerful hydrated layer of water molecules adjacent to the hydrophilic surface of the gangue particles is firmly bound to the hydrophilic surface of the particles. This is exactly what the pulp conditioning process is all about.

Upon reaching the required conditioning parameters of the pulp, which is determined experimentally, the pulp is poured over the drain threshold and flows into the pipe 7, delivering it to the flotation machine.

In FIG. 2 shows a second auxiliary device - a water saturator by air.

This device includes a housing 9, a pipe 10 supplying water to the saturator through a valve for regulating the flow of water 11 and a flow meter 12, into a mixer 15 of water with air, which enters from the atmosphere through a valve 13 that controls the air flow and through the air flow meter 14.

The mixer 15 is connected to the suction pipe of the suction pump 16 of the rotary type, and the discharge pipe of this pump is connected to the suction pipe of the pump-saturator 17, also of the rotor type. The discharge port of this pump is connected to a back pressure valve 18 of the type of safety valve. The outlet pipe of this valve 18 is connected to a pipe 19 transporting saturated water to a flotation machine (see Fig. 3).

This saturator works as follows.

The work of this saturator is based on Henry's law, discovered by the English chemist Winston Henry in 1803 and named after him.

According to this law, the solubility of sparingly soluble gases in a liquid, in particular air in water, is directly proportional to the pressure of this gas above the liquid under other conditions being equal. In particular, how many times the air pressure rises above the surface of the water, the solubility of air in water at the same temperature increases by the same amount compared to its solubility at atmospheric pressure.

This dependence of the solubility of air in water on the air pressure above water, compared to atmospheric pressure, taken as zero, is presented in the table where this dependence is given for temperatures of 15 ° C, 20 ° C, 25 ° C and 30 ° C. So, if at 25 ° C, the solubility of air in water at atmospheric pressure is 16.7 dm ³ / m ³ , then at an overpressure of 0.6 MPa, i.e. 7 times more than atmospheric, air solubility is 116.9 dm ³ / m ^{3 of} water.

This is 7 times more than the solubility of air in water at the same temperature at atmospheric pressure. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary for each cubic meter of water supplied to the saturator to introduce air in a volume of ≈117 dm ³ / m ³ , but taking into account the content in the supplied water, for example 10 dm ^{3 of} air in 1 m ^{3 of} water, the amount of supplied air can be reduced to 107 dm ³ for each cubic meter of water supplied to the saturator. In this case, during operation of the saturator pump, bubbles of undissolved air will not remain, which impair the operation of the rotary pump installed in the saturator.

The upper limit of the pressure generated in the saturator pump 17 depends on the back pressure regulator 18 installed at the outlet of the saturator, which starts to pass through the saturated water into the pipe 19 only when the saturation pressure reaches the preset pressure regulator 18.

The saturator works as follows. Under the action of the suction pump 16, clarified water is sucked through the pipe 10, from which the suspended impurities (settling or filtration) are preliminarily removed, coming through the control valve 11 and the flow meter 12. In the mixer 15, the water is mixed with atmospheric air coming from the atmosphere through the control valve 13 and flowmeter 14. The resulting mixture of water with air, in a ratio sufficient to completely dissolve the air in water at a given pressure, is sucked into the suction pipe of the suction pump 16. In this pump, coming off the top of air dissolving in water with vigorous stirring under relatively low pressure. Then from pressure

the nozzle of this pump, the air-water mixture enters the suction nozzle of the saturator pump 17. Here, with vigorous stirring of the mixture, the pressure rises to the value set by the back pressure regulator 18. When the set pressure is reached, the introduced air completely passes from the gas phase to the phase of the solution, which breaks through the valve 18, entering the pipe 19, transporting the resulting saturated water to the jet, shift 23 of the camera, shown in figure 3.

The figure 3 presents the claimed utility model "Device for ore dressing by pressure flotation".

This device includes a cylindrical housing 20, to which is connected a system for supplying air-conditioned pulp from the discharge pipe 7 of the contact changer (FIG. 1), including a control valve 21 connected to the pulp flow meter 22, which in turn is connected to the jet pulp mixer 23 with a saturated water. The inkjet shift is connected to a shelf mixer 24, which in turn is connected through a pipe 41 to a distributor 25 of pulp mix with saturated water along the camera’s cross section in its lower part.

In the upper part of the camera hermetically fixed pulp sump 26 coaxial to the outer surface of the camera. The lower part of this sump is connected to a direct-acting regulator in the form of a siphon 27. On the outer surface of this siphon, a coupling 28 is movably fixed, which allows changing the level of the siphon outflow from the siphon when changing the flow chamber productivity by pulp. The siphon is located in the chamber, the lower part of which is connected to the pipe 29, transporting the spent pulp to the tailings.

On the surface of the settler 26, a foam collector 30 having a pipe 31 for dumping the foam product into the foam collector is hermetically fixed coaxially to its outer surface. The bottom of the slurry settler 26 has a bias towards the siphon of at least 20 °, and the bottom of the foam collector 30 also has a bias of at least 30 ° to the opposite side.

A soothing grid 32 is horizontally fixed above the pulp surface in the settler 26, forming a slot 33 for overflowing the chamber product through the upper cut of the cylindrical body 20 into the pulp settler 26. Crescent-shaped blades 35 of the clip mechanism 34 are installed on the surface of the stilling grid 32.

To adjust the horizontal position of the stilling grid 32, there are three set screws on its edge. The figure 7 shows the installation of the adjusting screws 43. The figure 4 shows the structure of the jet mixer 23, where under the letter "a" shows the jet mixer in plan, consisting of an annular pipe 23, on the inner surface of which are fixed nozzles 37 with an inclination down and to the side . The feed of the jet mixer with saturated water is carried out from the saturator (Fig. 2) through the pipe 19. The jet mixer 23 is fixed in a cylindrical housing 38 with flanges 39 on both sides, as shown in figure 4 (letter "b"). The upper flange is hermetically connected through a rubber gasket to the counterflange on the pipe 7, transporting the pulp from the pulp mixer tank with flotation reagents (see Fig. 1). The bottom flange of this cylindrical body is connected to the counter flange of the pipe 24, where the shelf mixer 24 is located. This shelf mixer 24 is connected to the perforated pulp distributor 25 using the pipe 41, which is shown in figure 5, which shows a bottom view of the pulp distributor. This distributor 25 is represented by a hollow pipe ring whose diameter is equal to the diameter of the supply pipe (the design of the pulp distributor is shown in Fig. 5). On the bottom side of the distributor there are openings 42 with a diameter of at least the diameters of the pulp particles. In the lower conical part, the body of the flotation machine is equipped with a valve 36 (see Fig. 3) for draining waste water when cleaning the flotation chamber.

The work of the proposed technical solution "Device for ore concentration by pressure flotation". The pulp, conditioned in a mixer tank with flotation reagents, enters through the pipe 7 into the proposed flotation machine through a control valve 21 and a flow meter 22 with the required pulp flow rate. Then

this pulp enters the cylindrical body 38 of the jet mixer 23 (see Fig. 4). Here, from the nozzles 37 in the lower part of the annular pipe 23, jets of saturated water flowing through the pipe 19 from the saturator (see Fig. 2) break out with a slope into the pulp column located in a cylindrical body with a high pressure. From this effect, the pulp column begins to rotate and is processed by jets of saturated water from all sides. The created mixture of conditioned pulp with saturated water is additionally mixed in the shelf mixer 24 during its flow from shelf to shelf. The homogenized mixture then passes through a pipe 41 into an annular pipe 25 with a diameter from the same pipe. Here, from the openings in the lower side of this distributor, jets of the incoming pulp mixture pour over the cross section of the photocamera. As a result of thorough mixing of the pulp with saturated water, the entire aqueous phase of the pulp is mixed with saturated water, which is introduced into the pulp in an amount of not less than 0.1 m ³ per 1 m ^{3 of} pulp.

It should be noted that the Henry law described above has a consequence, which can be formulated as follows: “When the pressure of the gas above the liquid, for example, air above the surface of the water, decreases, the solubility of the gas in the liquid, including air in water, is proportionally reduced. As a result of this, a solution of gases in a liquid, including air in water, is in a nonequilibrium-supersaturated state. Therefore, the resulting nonequilibrium system spontaneously begins to transition to an equilibrium state through a spontaneous (spontaneous) transition of a gas, in this case air, from the phase of a supersaturated solution to the free gas phase. It is this process that occurs in a mixture of pulp with saturated water with a decrease in pressure in the camera to atmospheric pressure.

If this transition occurs in the volume of the aqueous phase, then this nonequilibrium water-air system needs to spend, as is known from the reference data, 21 kJ of energy for breaking intermolecular bonds in 1 Mole of water, equivalent to 18 grams of water or 18 cm ^{3 of} water during formation

air cavity (air bubble) in the volume of water. And if this energy is enough, then air bubbles are released in the aqueous phase. But there is another option - the spontaneous occurrence of the process of transition of air from the phase of a supersaturated solution to the gas phase directly on the hydrophobic surface of the particles. This process takes place on a hydrophobic surface due to the fact that a very thin hydrate layer is attached to it, consisting of water molecules weakly bonded to this surface. The bubble nucleus arising on this surface easily, almost without energy expenditure, shifts water molecules without breaking their bonds and then grows due to diffusion of air from the adjacent aqueous phase saturated with air. Both the emergence of a bubble nucleus and its subsequent growth due to air diffusion occur in time from the beginning of mixing of the pulp with the water-saturated jet mixer and shelf mixer, and ends with the particles rising together with the organized ascending pulp stream in the photocamera to its surface. A prerequisite for the emergence and continuation of this flotation process is the occurrence of a state of supersaturation of the aqueous phase of the pulp with air. According to calculations, this condition of the pulp occurs when it is mixed with saturated water in a ratio of not less than 0.1 m ^{3 of} saturated water per 1 m ^{3 of} pulp. If the saturated water was introduced in a larger volume or it was saturated with air at a higher pressure, the transition of air from the solution phase to the gas phase can occur simultaneously in the solution volume. But even in this case, the resulting air bubbles do not weaken, but enhance the ascent of the particle-bubble aggregates by sticking them to the bubbles of these aggregates, acting as transport bubbles.

It should be noted that the role of transport bubbles generated at the bottom of the photocamera by the dispersant in the prototype in the proposed technical solution is sharply weakened due to the organized upward flow of pulp, which plays the role of transporting the created aggregates in the form of a "particle-bubble". In this case, even small aggregates, reaching the surface of the pulp in the sump, remain on the surface, sticking together with

pressure flotation in the proposed utility model can take place without significant changes and without participation in the flotation process of transport bubbles. In this regard, the distributor of pulp mixture in the volume of the flotation chamber does not significantly affect the flotation process, although it distributes the incoming pulp mixture over the cross section of the flotation chamber. Thus, the sign of the prototype regarding the presence of transport bubbles of the pulp mixture with saturated water can be omitted. As for the sign “pulp distributor in the flotation chamber”, its role in the prototype as a pulp distributor over the flow of transport bubbles disappears with the disappearance of the bubbles themselves. His role remains as a pulp distributor over the horizontal section of the flotation chamber.

In a mixture of pulp and saturated water entering the flotation chamber, the process of spontaneous formation of particle-bubble pop-up aggregates occurs both on the hydrophobic surface of large particles, where several bubble nuclei can form, and on the hydrophobic surface of small and even thin particles. These aggregates rise together with the flow of pulp to the surface. During this rise, the nuclei of the bubbles grow due to diffusion of air from the adjacent aqueous phase, supersaturated with air.

The foam layer collected on the surface of the pulp floats to the surface of the stilling lattice 32, from where it is dumped by the sickle-shaped blades 35 of the scraper mechanism 34 into the foam collector 30. And the depleted pulp in the slot 33 under the stilling lattice without swirls smoothly flows through the cutter of the camera body into the settling tank 26 and then flows over the edge the clutch 28 on the siphon 27 is discharged into a pipe 29, which directs this depleted chamber product to the tailings.

The proposed model in its practical use is able to significantly improve the process of beneficiation of difficult-to-concentrate ores, reduce the complexity and at the same time increase the profitability of the process

enrichment, and simplify the control system, due to the direct action regulator (siphon, regulating the level of pulp in the flotamok). In particular, it will allow to enrich finely and even finely disseminated ores. In addition, the proposed technical solution based on a new enrichment method - pressure flotation, due to the lack of the inertial component inherent in the classical flotation method, does not depend on the size of the particles recovered by the classical flotation method, but depends only on the degree of hydrophobicity of their surface. On the basis of this, enormous reserves of past tailings of past years containing small and thin classes of particles of precious metals and valuable minerals that are not extracted by existing methods of enrichment can be successfully enriched with this method. These stocks of stale tails can be considered as technogenic deposits of ores that are crushed, stored and ready for enrichment with a new enrichment method - pressure flotation.

In addition, this flotation method can be used for natural deposits, for example, gold, containing gold of small and thin classes.

Prominent scientist geologist Shilo Nikolai Alekseevich, who devoted his many years of research to the study of a variety of placers, in his monograph “The doctrine of placers. Theory of placer-forming ore formations and placers ”(Vladivostok, Dalnauka, 2003, p. 473), reported that placers with large reserves of gold of fine grades are widespread in Yakutia“ ... However, their exploration, and, especially, mining, are possible only with advanced technology. Without solving this problem, the entire area where placers containing fine gold are concentrated, whose reserves can be estimated in hundreds of tons, cannot be put into industrial circulation. "

The proposed technical solution, which, unlike the classical flotation method, is capable of extracting hydrophobized particles of minerals and precious metals of fine particle sizes from conditioned ores. Based on this, it seems that our technical

the solution can be regarded as a perfect technology capable of introducing into the industrial circulation the indicated placers and not only these, but also a number of other similar deposits.

The proposed technical solution, in contrast to the classical flotation method, is capable of selectively extracting hydrophobized particles of minerals and precious metals of fine particle sizes from conditioned ore pulps, regardless of their size.

As the successor of the Soviet Union, Russia became a party to international agreements signed by the Soviet Union. In particular, Russia became a party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of 1983. Article 4-ter of this Convention declares the right of the inventor: "The inventor has the right to be named as such in the patent."

We believe that the presented technical solution, “A device for enrichment of pressure flotation ores,” based on a completely new flotation method, the extraction of hydrophobic particles from which from ore pulps, does not depend on the size of the particles, but depends only on the degree of hydrophobicity of their surface.

Thus, we classify this technical solution as a pioneer one, and ask to name our technical solution as “Babenko-Pershina device for enrichment of pressure flotation ores”.

Claims (4)

1. A device for enrichment of polymetallic ores by pressure flotation, including a pneumatic column flotation machine, a source pulp mixer with flotation reagents, a clarifier water clarifier saturator, a jet mixer for this conditioned pulp with saturated water and a shelf mixer connected in series with a perforated pulp mixture distributor fixed in the center of the flotation chamber, characterized in that the flotation chamber is equipped in the upper part of the housing with a pulp settler hermetically fixed coaxially to its outer surface, the bottom outlet of which is connected to a direct-acting regulator in the form of a siphon, fixed externally at the level of the pulp surface in the flotation chamber. 2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that on the outer surface of the siphon that releases the chamber product from the flotation chamber, a sleeve is movably fixed, which allows you to change the level of the outflow from the siphon when changing the flotation chamber through the pulp. 3. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that a foam collector is hermetically fixed coaxially to the outer surface of the pulp on the outer surface of the pulp, and a soothing grill of the pulp is fixed on the surface of the pulp in the settler, on which crescent-shaped blades of the scraper mechanism are located. 4. The device according to claim 3, characterized in that the bottom of the pulp sump has a slope of at least 20 ° towards the siphon, and the bottom of the foam collector has a slope of at least 30 ° to the opposite side of the slope of the bottom of the slurry.

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