REVIEW OF ULTRASONICALLY AIDED ZINC FLOTATION BY MECHANICAL AND
COLUMN FLOTATION
Ugur Ulusoya,*Hulya Kursunb,
b
a
Department of Mining Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, TR-58140 Sivas, Turkey
Department of Material and Metallurgical Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, TR-58140 Sivas, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Since the global zinc mine production in 2014 was 13.3 million tons the flotation which is the most widely
used separation process for the concentration of low grade complex Pb-Cu-Zn ores plays an important role
in the mineral economies of the world. This work reviews some recent applications of ultrasonic
pretreatment on the mechanical flotation (MF) (Kursun, 2014) and column flotation (CF) (Kursun and
Ulusoy, 2015) for zinc recovery from lead-zinc-copper ore. After chosen flotation parameters such as KAX
dosage, frother amount, flotation time, stirring rate and amount of Na 2SiO3 were optimized by MF and CF
experiments without ultrasonic pretreatment based on the grade-recovery upgrading curve, the effect of
ultrasonic pretreatment on the MF and CF experiments were investigated at the optimized conditions.
When compared with the optimized parameters, MF with ultrasonic pretreatment has provided higher
concentrate grade and recovery, namely 10.21 % and 8.54 %, respectively. In the case of CF with
ultrasonic pretreatment 7.58 % and 10.56 % increment in zinc grade and recovery were obtained at single
stage, respectively. After 3 stages of cleaning and 3 stages of scavenging, these increasing were realized as
19.91 % and 4.96 % in zinc grade and recovery by CF with ultrasonic pretreatment. This positive behavior
of ultrasound in both zinc grade and recovery for both MF and CF methods may be due to the increasing
dispersion of ultrasound, increasing adsorption of collectors and the hydrodynamic cavitation which
produced small bubbles attaching to the hydrophobic particles thereby increasing contact angle. XRD
analysis were also supported the positive effect of ultrasonic pretreatment on MF. Therefore, ultrasonic
pretreatment with MF and or CF is an effective tool for zinc recovery.
Figure 3 – Effect of ultrasonic treatment on the performance of CF and MF (Kursun, 2014; Kursun and
Ulusoy, 2015).
where CF-MS; Multi Stage Colum Flotation; CF-MS+UT; Multi Stage Colum Flotation after Ultrasonic
Treatment; CF-SS; Single Stage Colum Flotation; CF-SS+UT; Single Stage Colum Flotation after
Ultrasonic Treatment; MF; Mechanical Flotation; MF+UT; Mechanical Flotation after Ultrasonic
Treatment
KEYWORDS
Zinc, mechanical flotation, column flotation, ultrasonic treatment
------------------------------------------*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 346 219 10 10/1328.
E-mail address: uulusoy@cumhuriyet.edu.tr.