US1508478A - Ore-concentration process - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 16, 1924. 1,508,478

W. A. SCOTT ORE CONCENTRATION PROCESS Filed NOV. 12 1917 Patented Sept. 16, 1924.

-UlTED FFEE.

WALTER A. SCOTT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MINERALS SEPARATION NORTH AMERICAN CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF MARYLAND.

ORE-CONCENTRATION PROCESS.

Application filed November 12, 1917. Serial No. 201,463.

T40 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, WALTER A. Soon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in an Ore-Concentration Process, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is an improved flotation process. In the flotation process as previously practiced, as is well known, certain reagents or modifying agents generally termed oils, although many of such substances are not oils, are added to a freely flowing ore pulp whereupon the introduction of air or some other gas into the pulp gives rise to the formation of bubbles which collect the desired mineral, generally metalliferous sulphides, and reject the gangue. The modifying agents used for this great variety of oils, animal, vegetable and mineral oils, coal and wood tar and derivatives thereof, various alcohols, hydroxyl compounds and other substances, all of which I refer to herein, for the sake of brevit as oils. Air, of course, is the most availa le gas and the one generally used, but in referring to air herein I include all gases which have a similar action.

Heretofore the air necessary in the operation of the process has been introduced into the ore pulp either by mechanical agitation which has the effect of introducing air from the atmosphere and beating it into the pulp,

or by introducing air under pressure into the pulp through a porous medium forming part of the vessel in which the pulp is con tained. Detailed explanation of the flotation process as heretofore practiced is un- 40 necessary in view of the fact that the process is widely known and described in many patents and publications.

In the mechanical agitation method of introducing air the mechanical agitation imparted to the pulp for that purpose is suflicient to thoroughly disseminate the oil through the pulp, such distribution of the .oil being necessary in order that it may accomplish its function. In the method of introducing air through a porous medium it is usual to adopt independent means for mixing the oil and such independent means purpose comprise a 1 have heretofore taken the form of mechanical agitation sufficient to disseminate the oil and pro-aerate the pulp.

I have ascertained that the oil performs its principal, if not its only, function in the film surrounding the air bubbles and my invention consists in introducing the oil in such manner that it is supplied directly to the bubble films Without the necessity of disseminating the oil through the entire body of ore pulp. My invention consists in using a volatile oil, impregnating the air with the gasified volatile oil, and introducing the gaseous mixture of air and oil into the pulp whereupon sufficient of the oil collects in the bubble films to effect the desired function. When operating according to my invention the necessity of mechanical agitation for the purpose of mixing the oils with the entire body of ore pulp is dispensed with and the amount of oil necessary for the purpose is greatly diminished in quantity by reason of the fact that the oil is applied directly to the bubble films where it is needed, without the necessity of distributing the-oil throughout the body of the ore pulp in order to accomplish that purpose.

have discovered, as set forth in my Patents 1,246,665 of November 1-7, 1917, and 1,261,303 of April 2, 1918, that it is unnecessary to mix oils or other so-called modifying agents with the ore pulp in order to float the metalliferous mineral, but that flotation can be effected with equal or greater efficiency by mixing the modifying agent in gaseous form with the air which is introduced into the pulp for the purpose of the flotation process.

The gaseous modifying agent used may be either the vapor of a substance which is liquid under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure or some constituent of such substance, or, the gaseous modifying agent may be a substance which under the ordinary conditions of temperature 'and' have described the introduction of such vaporized or gaseous modifying agents into an ore pulp by means either of mechanical agitation having the effect of introducing the vapors or gases in and beating them into the pulp or of a porous medium septum through which the vapors or gases are introduced into the pulp. This application is directed to the mechanical agitation method of introducing modifying vapors or gases of the kind above referred to wherein the pulp is subjected to mechanical agitation having the effect of drawing in and beating into the ore pulp the vaporized or gaseous substances.

For the purpose of carrying my invention into practice it is only necessary to provide an agitation vessel of the type ordinarily used and well known, merel enclosing the top of the vessel and sup-p ying the gas to the space above the pulp in the enclosed top of the vessel.

The modifying gases delivered tothe apparatus may be prepared in any suitable apparatus and may be vapors distilled from solid or liquid substances, the distillation being either the simple vaporization of the substances or their destructive distillation as in the cases of the gas formed from coal, asphaltic matter, gilsonite or other organic substances as hereinbefo-re referred to. The modifying as may be, and ordinarily would be, supplie to the apparatus in admixture with air. The effect of the agitation of the pulp in the agitation vessel is to beat the modifying gas or mixture of modifying gas and air into the ore pulp. When the pulp so treated flows into the usual spitzkasten a concentrate froth forms and floats in the usual way and is collected by skimming or overflow.

l have shown in the accompanying drawing suitable means for carrying my invention into practice. In this draw ing K re resents an agitation vessel, the agitator consisting of radial arms attached to the lower end of a shaft U which is rotated by means of power applied thereto from some convenient source. The vessel K is closed at the upper end except for an air inlet V. At some suitable place in the upper part of the vessel K a container 0 is placed to hold the volatile oil, and, if necessary, steam pipes P may be supplied beneath the container O to assist in gasifying the oil. Adjacent the agitation vessel K is a spitzkasten Q provided with an overflow lip R and a launder S. The spitzkasten is connected to the agitation vessel by a port T. Pulp may be supplied to the agitation vessel through an inlet port M and the tailings discharged through the outlet N at the bottom of the spitzkasten. The supply and discharge of pulp from the apparatus is so regulated that the froth formed on the surface of the pulp in the spitzkasten flows over the lip R into the launders S.

In operation the air drawn into the pulp in the agitation vessel b the action of the agitator enters through the inlet port V and becomes mixed with gasified oil in the upper part of the agitation vessel and is then drawn in and beaten into the pulp in the form of minute bubbles which rise to the surface in the form of a froth in the spitzkasten Q. This froth overflows into the launder S and may subsequently be broken down and the precipitated mineral recovered as concentrate and either treated as finished concentrate or retreated for further purification, as desired.

hat I claim is:

1. A process of concentrating ores comprising the operations of introducing a mixture of a non-frothing gas and a frothing agent in gaseous form into an ore pulp by agitating the ore pulpin the presence of said gaseous mixture, whereby fine bubbles are formed to which certain mineral particles in the ore adhere as said bubbles pass through the pulp, causing said mineralbearing bubbles to form a froth above the pulp, and separating mineral carried by the froth from the remainder of the ore.

2. A process of concentrating ores comprising the operations of introducing a mixture of a non-frothing gas and a fnothing agent in the form of vapor into an ore pulp by agitating the ore pulp in the presence of said gaseous mixture, whereby fine bubbles are formed to which certain mineral particles in the ore adhere as said bubbles pass through the pulp, causing said mineralbearing bubbles to form a froth above the pulp, and separating mineral carried by the froth from the remainder of the ore.

3. A process of concentrating ores comprising the operations of introducing a mixture of a non-frothing gas and a frothing agent in gaseous form into an ore pulp by agitating the ore pulp in the presence of said gaseous mixture, whereby fine bubbles are formed to which certain mineral particles in the ore adhere, and then subjecting said pulp to a state of substantial quiescence, thereby causing the formation of a mineral-bearing froth, and separating mineral carried by the froth from the remainder of the ore.

4. A process of concentrating ores comprising the operations of introducing a mixture of a non-frothing gas and a frothing agent in the form of vapor into an ore pulp by agitating the ore pulp in the presence of said gaseous mixture, whereby fine bubbles are formed to which certain mineral particles in the ore adhere, and then subjecting said pulp to a state of substantial quiescence, thereby causing the formation of a mineral-bearing froth, and separating mineral carried by the froth from the recondensible hydrocarbon in gaseous condimainder of the ore. tion by mechanically agitating and aerating 5. A flotation process of ore concentration the pulp in the presence of an atmosphere 10 involving the formation and separation of comprising such mixture. 5 a mineral-bearin froth which includes the In testimony whereof, I have subscribed step of introducing into the ore pulp fine my name. bubbles of a mixture of air with a readily WALTER A. SCOTT.

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