Beneficiation of fluorspar by column flotation

The amenability of column flotation for the beneficiation of fluorspar wets investigated, and the overall performance of the column flotation was comp ared to the performance of the existing conventional flotation cells at the plant. It was established that improved grades and recoveries could be obt ained by adopting column technology. Acidspar concentrates assaying 97% CaF 2, suitable for HF manufacturing, can be produced by adopting two-stage col umn cleaning in place of multistage cleaning by conventional cells. Similar ly, metspar concentrates assaying 90% CaF2, suitable for metallurgical appl ications, can be achieved in a single-stage cleaning by column flotation. T his is an improvement over what is now being achieved using the existing co nventional rougher and three-stage cleaning cells in the plant. The number of stages, i.e.,four in the acidspar circuit and four in the metspar circui t, including rougher stages, can be eliminated by adopting a three-column c onfiguration. Thus, the cost of production, the complexity of the circuit a nd the power consumption cart be effectively reduced with other attendant b enefits.