Hydrophobic Frothers for

Mineral Processing
Frothers
Development and testing
by :
Levi Guzman Rivera
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A

Introduction
Froth flotation is a highly
interactive
system including
water
chemistry,
pH,
hidrodynamic, particle size, etc.
The answer appears to be that
changing frother chemistry
structure
could
improve
metallurgical performance
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A has
been involved in developing
new frother chemistry.

Moly-Cop Adesur
Experience

Overview
A long experience with the frother
business, due to since 1987 to 1992
was the exclusive representative of
Ore Prep Chemicals.

In 1992
was formed Mineral
Reagents
International
Inc.,
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A. was chosen
to be one of the pilot business unit for
testing and developing new frothers
under Dr. Richard Klimpel direction.

Moly-Cop Adesur
Experience

Overview
In 1994 Armco signed an agreement
with
Dow
Chemical
Co.
to
commercialize
Dowfroth
mining
products
and
manufacture
new
chemical products for mining industry
In 1998 Moly-Cop Adesur S.A. built
its own blending facility in Callao
Lima.
In 2002 Moly-Cop
relocated its blending
Anita Lima.

Adesur S.A.
facility To Sta

BLENDING AND STORAGE FACILITIES

Total Area 2,000 m2
Storage capacity :
1 tk 60,000 gl
6 tks 10,000 gl
Blending Capacity :
2 tks 8 Mt / batch
400 Mt/mth

FROTHERS EVOLUTION - OVERVIEW

Frothers Generation I

Naturally Derived
materials as:

Inexpensive to

Pine oil

Very variable in

Cresilic acid
Xilenol

moderately priced
quality
Environmentally
regulated

FROTHERS EVOLUTION - OVERVIEW

Frothers Generation II

Alcohols

Inexpensive to

Glycols

moderately priced

Polyglycols methyl
ether

Consistent in quality

Modified Alcohols

Environmentally not

Carbonyl materials

regulated

Effective used alone.

FROTHERS EVOLUTION - OVERVIEW

Frothers Generation III

Taylor made blendings

Alcohol/Poliglycol
High MW Alcohol
Polyglicol Type

Inexpensive to
moderately priced
Consistent in quality
Effective used alone
Low dosage
Environmentally not
regulated

Main Frother
Families

MOLY-COP FROTHERS DEVELOPMENT

Alcohol
group

Alkoxys
group

Polyglycols
group

The alcohol
group

FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION

Alcohol group generally include 4 to 10 carbon
atoms in either linear , branched, cyclical or
aromatic form. (R-OH)

Aliphatic alcohols such as MIBC,

Hexanol, 2 Ethyl hexanol, has been
used extensively

Pine Oil, Cresylic acid, and 2,3 Xilenol have been

used industrially for decades, but due to
environmental concerns have been almost replaced
completely

The alcohol
group

FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION

Typically such aliphatic alcohol frothers show

less tenacity, lower water retention and more
brittle froth than other groups.

Alcohols have low water solubility,

are the most sensitive to pH changes,
and have the highest kinetics rate.

Due the low water retention, gives improved

selectivity for slimes, but are not good for
coarse flotation.

The alkoxys
group

FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION

This is new frother chemistry of which the best

known product is TEB. Those are not
extensively used..

Alkoyxs group have good water

solubility, and are less sensitive to pH
changes

The use characteristic is similar to Pine Oil

except that too much dosage does not affect the
froth character.

Polyglycol group

FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION

Polyglycol group represents the maximum

flexibility for the flotation engineer when the
correct frother is chosen.

The most common families are PGME

and PPG frothers, Dowfroth products
are representative of this frothers
(DF200, DF200, DF1012)

PGME gives improved water retention/drenage

action. Show more persistant froths than alcohols.
so only one stage dosage is required in most cases.

Polyglycol group

FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION

When compared to alcohols the recovery at

same or higher dosage is usually higher, but at
low dosages shows less recovery than alcohols.

PGME and PPG frothers are less

sensitive to changes in pH but have
slow kinetics compared to alcohols

Are good for coarse or slimes flotation,

according to the molecular weight in despite of
selectivity.

FROTHER REQUIREMENTS

Frothers
Requirements

Environmentally Safe

High Kinetics rate of flotation

Froth Stability and volume
Water drainage action
Low sensitivity to changes in Ph
Must break readily
It must readily dispersible
It should be relatively cheap

Frothers
Clasification

FROTHER CLASIFICATION

By particle size interaction

By Kinetics rate
using DFI and CCC

By particle Size interaction

FROTHER CHEMICAL STRUCTURE
DF-1263

DF-400

DF-1012

DF-250

HEXANOL

DF-200

MIBC

20

30

50

100
70
Particle size, (microns)

200

300

500

we can notice that each specific frother is related to an effective particle size
ranges of particles, so we can deduct that no one frother structure can generally
float the broadness of particle size distribution in flotation process.

By particle Size interaction

MIBC
H508
H225
DF200

CAPACIDAD DE LEVANTE POR TAMAOS

% Recuperacion en Peso

15,00
13,00
11,00
9,00
7,00
5,00
10

35

60

85

110

135

160

Tamao de Particula (micrones)

185

210

235

By particle Size interaction

% Cu Recovery

Frother and Particle size interaction

100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65

DF250
MIBC
H212

10

100

Particle Size (microns)

1000

By particle & Molecular Weight

SELECTIVE

12
11

Calculated HLB

10

Glycero
l(PO)
n

T402

CH (C
3 3 H O)
6 n OH

DF400
DF1012

DF1263
T411

MIBC

E
W
O

U
RF

MIBC-2PO
Hexanol-2PO
-Terpineol

Hexanol

5
4

100

200

300

400

500

600

Molecular Weight

700

800

900

1000

By Kinetics Rate
1

Ri = R 1 (
) [1 exp( Kt ) ]
Kt

By Kinetics Rate
100
90

% Cu recovery

80

C-800
F-501

70

H-225

60

H-425

50

H-525

40

H-530
H-602

30
20
0

10

Flotation time (min)

12

14

16

18

By Kinetics Rate

(%) Pb recovery

Flotacion Bulk (Pb-Ag)

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20

H425
TPG
H212
DF250

flotation time(min)

10

By Kinetics Rate
95

%Cu Recovery

85
H-530
H-525
H-520
H-515
H-501

75
65
55
45
35
25
0

10
Flotation Time (min)

15

20

By DFI and CCC

rt
DFI =

C C 0

V
rt =
Q
Frother

MIBC
HEX
DEMPH
DEH
MPDEH
(PO)1
(PO)2
DF-200
DF-250
DF-1012

DFI
s.L/mol
34,000
33,000
290,000
94,000
170,000
5,700
35,000
196,000
208,000
267,000

CCC
mmol/L
0.11
0.079
0.013
0.031
0.016
0.52
0.17
0.089
0.033
0.015

DFI x CCC
S
3.74
2.61
3.77
2.91
2.72
2.96
5.95
18.44
6.86
4.0

By DFI and CCC

2.5
DF200
DF250
DF1012
MIBC

Sauter Diameter (mm)

CCC for DF200

1.5
CCC for MIBC

0.5
CCC for
DF1012

CCC for
DF250

0
0

0.1

0.2

Concentration (mmol/L)

0.3

0.4

By DFI and CCC

300000

DEMPH

DFI (s.L/mol)

DF1012

DF250

200000

DF200

MPDEX

100000
DEH

HEX MIBC

(PO)1
(PO)2

0
0

0.2

0.4
CCC (mmol/L)

0.6

Conclusions
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A. research is based in giving to
the frother different properties as kinetics, selectivity,
grain size floatability, froth stability, these ones are
combined to obtain the best metallurgical performance
for each application.
The broad of products developed by Moly-Cop
Adesur S.A., allows to address specific mineral
processing problems by providing the best hydrophobic
frother solution.

Conclusions
In research work, there were
identified some trends in
order to improve the frother
capability, as follows:
To float slimes and coarse

particles
Larger flotation cells require
more stronger frother
Alternative
equipments
(column cells, Flash Flotation,
etc)
More complex ores systems
(Oxides)
Improve Kinetics rate
........ many others

Conclusions
Moly-Cop

Adesur

S.A.

supports its products with technical

service in terms of testing and
developing new products, this work
is
normally
developed
with
metallurgical personnel so that the
problem can be better addressed.

Currently it has been identified five

families of frother for froth flotation
denoted as MCFroth (H series),
H100, H200, H300, H400 and
H500.

Conclusions
Need to blending frothers in order
to improve particle size flotability

Making
frothers
more
hydrophobic, it is possible to
float coarser particles

Need to combine kinetics rate, frother

stability, and other properties from
different chemical families

Conclusions
Lab testing gives good approach for
new raw materials an to analyze froth
(persistance, breakage, etc)

Plant testing in a on/off way to

determine consumption an
metallurgical performance

Dynamic frother optimization to improve

metallurgical results as support