Dense liquid flotation: Can coarse particle flotation performance be enhanced by controlling fluid density?

In this work, we investigate the influence of fluid density on bubble-particle detachment and coarse particle flotation performance. Detachment studies were carried out using an electro-acoustic apparatus in a dense liquid environment using a lithium heteropolytungstate (LST) mixture with subsequent flotation studies carried out in a micro flotation cell at varying fluid densities. Our results indicate that bubble load was inherently limited by particle surface area and weak particle-particle interactions at coarser sizes. Coarser particles tend to follow the detachment behavior of relatively finer particles at increased fluid density. We also found that flotation per-formance in terms of recovery, rate, and maximum floatable size can be enhanced by controlling fluid density within a stated limit beyond which detachment in the froth phase causes overall performance to drop.