Enrichment of Silica Sand Ore by Cyclojet Flotation Cell

Abstract

Cyclojet flotation is an alternative technique of jet flotation. It essentially has a mechanism for bubble formation with pulp jet spouting from the apex of hydrocyclone. The size of the bubbles formed with pulp jet in the cyclojet cell is very small, and the quantity of bubbles produced also limits its potential to produce high bubble-particle collision. This is particularly efficient in beneficiation of fine-grained ores. In this study, the performance of the cyclojet flotation cell was tested for removing iron-oxides from silica sand ore. Whether it can be used as an alternative to conventional mechanical cells was studied. The findings obtained from the cyclojet cell were compared with findings obtained from the conventional cell. It was seen that the cyclojet cell produced slightly better results than the conventional cell. Under the best conditions, while the cyclojet cell reduced the iron-oxide content in silica sand from 0.41% to 0.08%, the conventional cell reduced it to 0.10%. While iron removal efficiency was 80.49% for the cyclojet flotation, it was calculated as 75.61% for the conventional cell. These findings showed that cyclojet flotation can be used as an alternative method to conventional flotation for the removal of iron oxides from silica sand.