Bringing Split Flotation to Reality — The Cannington Experience
C Torrisi1 and R Smith2
ABSTRACT
The BHP Billiton Cannington mine uses sequential flotation to treat a
silver, lead and zinc ore supplied from an underground mine. The final
products from the process plant are a silver rich lead concentrate and a
zinc concentrate. Operational history of plant performance highlighted
that the majority of valuable metal losses to final tailing occurred in the
-5 µm fraction. Research completed on the flotation characteristics of this
size fraction in plant feed resulted in the development of a split flotation
process to improve the silver and lead mineral recoveries.
Construction of a $A 9.5 million brownfield project to install the new
split flotation circuit at Cannington was completed in July 2002. The
circuit consists of three stages of cyclone classification to recover the
ultra fine material to a final cyclone overflow stream, conditioning of this
pulp to achieve optimal process conditions, and conventional rougher and
three stage cleaner flotation to produce a silver rich lead concentrate. The
rougher tail from the new circuit is recombined with the cyclone
underflow streams and processed through the original lead-zinc flotation
circuit.
This paper discusses the circuit design, material properties, material
selection for components of the circuit, operational practices and
requirements to ensure the circuit succeeded in meeting production
targets. The technology is subject of a number of patent applications
including international application No PCT/AU02/00400.
INTRODUCTION – DEFINING THE PROBLEM
The BHP Billiton owned Cannington silver-lead-zinc deposit
located in north west Queensland is currently the single largest
silver and lead mine in the world. The massive sulfide orebody
contains the economic minerals of galena, sphalerite and a range
of silver bearing minerals. The Cannington process plant treats
high-grade silver, lead and zinc sulfide ores producing a reject
1. MAusIMM, Process Engineer, Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd, PO Box
344, Collie WA 6225. Formerly: BHP Billiton Cannington.
2. Shift Superintendent, BHP Billiton Cannington, PO Box 5874MC,
Townsville Qld 4810.
200
180
160
140
Metal Value ( A$M pa)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0 0
C7 C6 C5 C4 C3
FIG 1 - Distribution of valuable metal in plant feed (CY2000).
Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference
talc stream, two concentrate product streams and a final tailings
stream. The two concentrate streams are a silver rich – lead
concentrate averaging 80 per cent passing 24 µm at 72 per cent
lead grade containing an average 3200 g/t silver and the zinc
concentrate averaging 80 per cent passing 18 µm at 52 per cent
zinc grade. Production for the financial year ending June 2002
was 38.11 Moz of silver and 248 947 tonnes of lead contained in
lead concentrate and 70 336 tonnes of zinc and 1.29 Moz silver
contained in zinc concentrate.
Historical monthly composite sizing data had shown that over
50 per cent of the silver and lead metal losses to the final tailings
stream occurred due to loss of ultra fine particles typically less
than 5 µm. Plant operating data from other Australian lead-zinc
mines showed that these plants also suffered from poor flotation
performance of ultrafines particles to varying degrees. Cullinan
et al (1999) showed that the flotation recovery and rate constant
of flotation of galena within the MIM secondary rougher banks
suffered below 5 µm. Greet, et al (1994) demonstrated that
Hellyer ore treated in the laboratory also suffered from poor
treatment performance for fine particles less than 5 µm. Whilst
the shape of the recovery by size curves were different, both
exhibited poor flotation performance for fine and coarse particles
whilst the intermediate sized particles exhibited the best flotation
performance.
Particle liberation analysis of the cyclosizer C5 fraction
(~4 µm) showed that over 80 per cent of the galena was liberated
in final tailing. These fine particles smaller than 5 µm had poor
recovery to lead concentrate, 20 - 40 per cent lower than the
intermediate sized particles (5 µm to 20 µm) as shown in Figure
1. Approximately 25 per cent of the total value of paid metals in
the plant feed stream was contained in particles smaller than
5 µm which was worth $A 170 million per annum at a 1.8 Mtpa
rate during CY2000 (the throughput has since increased to
2.1 Mtpa). It was estimated that the revenue lost as a result of the
low recovery of these liberated ultrafine lead and silver particles
was approximately $A 14 million per annum (CY2000 metal
prices) given they were recovered at 70 per cent grade.
100
90
Total zinc recovery to Pb and Zn concentrates 80
Silver recovery to Pb concentrate
Lead recovery to Pb concentrate 70
Recovery to Concentrate (%)
60
50
Zinc
40
Lead
30
Silver
20
10
C2 C1 38 45 53 63 75 90 106 150
µ m)
Size Fraction (µ
Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003 73
C TORRISI and R SMITH
DEVELOPING THE TREATMENT PROCESS –
MAKING SURE IT WORKS ALL THE TIME
From previous studies onsite, the pH of the slurry containing fine
particles was shown to have a major influence on the floatability
of the valuable fine particles of galena, sphalerite and silver
bearing minerals. Maintaining pulp pH less than 5.0 caused a
quantum leap in floatability of these fine particles by improving
both the recovery at time infinite (a measure of theoretical
maximum recovery) and the kinetics (a measure of the speed at
which the particles report from the pulp to the concentrate
stream) of flotation for silver, lead and zinc bearing minerals.
The initial investigation into improving the flotation
performance of fine valuable particles was commenced in
February 2000 looking at a range of chemical and processing
options for fines recovery. The split flotation process was
developed and optimised in the laboratory at the Cannington
mine site using the batch flotation technique. Any variable,
which could affect the proposed treatment process, was tested
and accounted for so that there was some degree of confidence
that the process was robust. By the time the feasibility study was
completed some 323 flotation tests on the same process had been
completed in the laboratory.
The flotation process was validated on a continuous basis
using pilot scale flotation equipment supplied by BHP Billiton
Minerals Technology. The pilot plant testing of the process took
place from December 2000 to February 2001, using the same
principle of ensuring robustness (some 167 surveys were taken).
Figure 2 shows the results of all surveys taken, including those
during unstable operation. Operation of the pilot plant used a live
plant stream. The results demonstrated a 30 per cent
improvement in the recovery of fine valuable particles was
observed, compared to the concurrent plant treatment
performance of fine particles. In addition to the recovery benefits
the concentrate grade was maintained at greater than 70 per cent
Pb (shown in Figure 2). The new fines (-5 µm) concentrate
product maintained the same product quality specifications as the
existing lead concentrate product with the exception that
sphalerite content was slightly higher displacing fluorine bearing
silicate minerals. Surprisingly the pyrite and pyrrhotite content of
the fines concentrate slightly decreased.
90 Pilot Plant Pb Grade vs Recovery
80
70
60
Grade % Pb
50
40
30
20
Pilot Plant Results
Jan 01 Composite C7 Result
10
Feb 01 Composite C7 Result
0
0 10 20 30
FIG 2 - Pilot plant demonstrated improvement of fine particle flotation.
74 Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003
The implementation of the split flotation process demonstrates
continuing excellence in the Australian minerals processing
industry. An enormous amount of research effort has been
employed since the problem of valuable metal losses to tailing
from the low recovery of fine particles was identified in 1931 by
Gaudin, et al. The problem of valuable metal loss due to the poor
recovery of fine particles was shown to be universal to a wide
range of industrial minerals including barytes, cassiterite, galena,
pyrite, quartz, sphalerite and wolframite (Trahar and Warren,
1976). Attempts to identify and understand the causes for the
poor treatment response of fine particles to the flotation process
have led to the development of several remedial processes though
none of these are universally applied throughout the minerals
processing industry. Trahar (1981) provided an excellent review
of the current methods for improving the recovery of valuable
fine particles. The reviews of Trahar (1976, 1981) set a
benchmark for the minerals processing industry.
A viable process for improving the recovery of valuable fine
particles has been developed and implemented. Specifically, the
process has been shown to improve the recovery of silver sulfide
minerals and galena particles smaller than five micron. In general
terms, the process encompasses the separate flotation of a
classified fines stream that has been treated under mildly acidic
conditions. The fines stream is then treated using the conventional
flotation process and reagents to recover and upgrade the value
component. The proven circuit comprises a rougher stage and
three stages of closed circuit cleaning to produce a fines lead
concentrate product stream at 70 per cent Pb grade. The
technology is subject to a number of patent applications including
international application No PCT/AU02/00400.
DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL LESSONS AND
STRATEGIES
Considerable experience and learnings had been obtained during
the construction and commissioning of the Cannington project
during 1997 (Leung et al, 2000). As is always the case, even with
the best intentions, problems are experienced particularly with
new technology. Several key principles (Leung et al, 2000) were
adopted during the start up of Cannington. Those key principles
were once again applied to the design and construction of the
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Recovery, %
Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference
 BRINGING SPLIT FLOTATION TO REALITY — THE CANNINGTON EXPERIENCE

new flotation circuit extension to integrate the split flotation
process into the existing plant and to deliver the benefits in a
timely and controlled manner. The split flotation flow sheet and
its position in the overall Cannington flow sheet is shown in
Figure 3.
There were many discussions, both formal and informal, about
building on the learning’s made during the design and
construction of the Cannington process plant five years previous.
Discussed below are some of the more characteristic decisions
made during the design stage. Although the commissioning
experience will be discussed in the next section it is convenient
to discuss the observations and operational performance of those
decisions here.
Three stage cyclone circuit
Extensive cycloning testwork was performed using a custom
built cyclone rig from redundant plant equipment. The main
difficulty was improving the efficiency of separation of the -5 µm
particles to a target >90 per cent without the need to lower the
cyclone feed density which, although would certainly improve
separation, would also increase equipment volumes and pump
sizing. Computer modelling was completed using individual
cyclone performance results from the test rig resulting in a three
stage cyclone circuit design. The first stage comprised of
150 mm Warman Cavex cyclones with the primary underflow
being slightly diluted to 50 per cent solids followed by a
scavenger (third) stage of 150 mm cyclones to improve recovery
of the fines. The combined 150 mm cyclone overflows were then
cycloned in clusters of 50 mm Mozley cyclones. The design of
the cyclone circuit also incorporated the installation of two sieve
bends to remove +2 mm trash from the Mozley cyclone feed.
The outcome
The single biggest improvement to the operation of the cyclone
circuit was tuning the level controllers on the cyclone feed
sumps. Cyclone feed pressure was a secondary variable and was
controlled by the number of cyclones online for the given plant
flow rate. Almost immediately sumps stopped overflowing and

Conditioning
Tanks cyclone UF

Fines combined cyclone UF and

fines fines tailings to conventional
Rougher 3
feed lead circuit

OK100 Fines fines rougher

OK100 Fines
Rougher 2 tail
Rougher 1
6” Warman
2” Mozley
Cavex
secondary fines rougher
primary
cyclones concentrate process water
cyclones

OK40 Third
Fines Cleaner
1st fines
cleaner tailing
OK40 Second
Fines Cleaner

6” Warman
Cavex 3rd fines cleaner
scavenger concentrate
OK40 First Fines
cyclones Cleaners

Talc Conventional Conventional

Prefloat Circuit Lead Circuit Zinc Circuit

final tailing to
paste plant or
talc prefloat reverse
tailings dam
cleaner concentrate zinc final concentrate to
Autogenous Milling
Circuit fluorite leach circuit

lead final concentrate to

fluorite leach circuit

FIG 3 - Split flotation integrated flow sheet.

Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003 75

C TORRISI and R SMITH
the task of finding the ideal pressure operating targets
commenced with many plant surveys taken. At best
approximately 80 per cent recovery of -5 µm was achieved,
below the feasibility target of 90 per cent recovery. The 80 per
cent passing size of the secondary cyclone overflow averaged
7 µm during commissioning, which was slightly coarser than
desired and increased the flow rate through the new flotation
circuit. The coarser cut and lower separation efficiency of the
cyclone circuit was caused by higher than design plant feed
densities.
An operational improvement in the Mozley cyclone circuit was
the ability to remove an internal screen from the Mozley cyclone
canisters. This screen was continually blocking and producing
high operational maintenance and pressure deviations in the
circuit. Although the screen was removed, the 4.5 mm cyclone
spigot in the 50 mm Mozley cyclone did not block and constant
pressure and low cyclone maintenance was achieved. Mist
around the Mozley cyclone canisters was also a concern during
commissioning. The supplied extension covers on the cyclone
spigots reduced the spraying action at the underflow and mist
generation. Mist was not an issue with the 150 mm Warman
cyclones banks, as the designed splash covers worked extremely
well on the underflow launders. Wear in the Mozley cyclones is
now a maintenance focus at Cannington, to improve cyclone life
and performance.
The installation of two sieve bends operating in parallel to
remove trash greater than 2 mm from the Mozley cyclone feed
stream produced a few operational issues. These screens are
normally used in coal preparation plants. The screen efficiency
was found to work well at removing the coarse material that
would have blocked the Mozley underflow spigot. The coarse
material however did not travel well over the screen and required
the installation of sprays and manual removal during operation.
This coarse material consisted of plastic/poly strips generated in
the grinding mill from material used underground in the mining
process. The screen also required cleaning between shutdowns
due to scale growth and bogging between the wedge wire. A
design improvement would have been to increase the safety
factor in the screen size to ensure no slurry was lost to the trash
bin and to improve maintainability in removal and rotation of the
screens, due to the frequency required (every six to nine weeks).
Duty/standby fines conditioning tanks
The operation of the pilot plant demonstrated significant gypsum
scaling of equipment downstream from the sulfuric acid addition
point. The formation of gypsum was limited to the conditioning
tanks and the first rougher cell where gypsum was precipitating
until the pulp solution reached equilibrium. The cause of the
gypsum formation was well understood and anti-scalant
chemicals were only partially effective in removing scale.
Further, the use of these chemicals was observed to have a
deleterious effect on the flotation of fines. The use of a
duty/standby configuration for the fines conditioning tanks
allowed scale to build up in one set of tanks, whilst the standby
tanks and piping were mechanically de-scaled. The idea of the
use of duty/standby equipment for scaling issues was learnt from
the PAL nickel and alumina industries which also suffer from
aggressive scaling. A missed design opportunity was to install a
pumping system on the conditioning tanks to allow the gypsum
to be treated with chemicals in a batch dosing treatment, to
soften the scale in the standby tanks, with this solution pumped
directly to the effluent dam after the treatment.
The outcome
As expected the conditioning tanks scaled with about 50 mm of
growth in nine weeks of operation, which was the interval
between scheduled plantwide maintenance shutdowns. It was a
76 Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003
simple exercise to remove the blind flange and swap to the
standby conditioning tanks. Scale removal was hampered by a
single circular manhole provided for on the 200 m3 tanks and a
100 mm drain. An improvement in the design would be the
installation of a arched manhole door on the side of the tank
allowing scale to be hosed out and then collected with a skid
steer loader.
Tank flotation cells
The use of tank cell flotation equipment was explicitly stated for
the split flotation project and in particular the use of Outokumpu
tank cell technology. The motive was to maintain commonality
of spares with existing rotor/stator sizes and bearing housings. A
distinct advantage of the tank cells with their low footprint was
the lack of structural steel required to support the cells with
concrete foundations used. The decision was also made to use
the largest possible cells for the designed volume (or residence
time). For example 20 m3 cells for the second and third cleaners
with 40 m3 first cleaners would have sufficed but a bank of 40 m3
was chosen – higher capital cost but increased flexibility and
common spares (Leung et al, 2000).
The outcome
The tank cells were easily commissioned. The new ultrasonic
level indicators worked very well as compared to the older style
angle transmitters. Several plant surveys showed that that
recoveries were being constrained due to insufficient rougher
flotation volume. Plumbing in a redundant bank of 4 × 16 m3
conventional flotation cells increased the roughing capacity by
30 per cent and improved the plants performance. The
metallurgical performance of the circuit is discussed in further
detail in the next section. The tank cell discharge dart valve
became a significant maintenance issue due to the high scaling
potential of the acidic slurry being handled. The shafts became
covered in a layer of gypsum scale causing the valves to
regularly stick and thus lose control of pulp levels. In hindsight
an increase in the tail box size in the 100 m3 tank cells would
have improved the operational maintenance on the dart plugs by
improving access.
Three stage cleaner circuit
Although the addition of acid improves the kinetics of flotation
for silver and lead minerals, the inherent entrainment mechanism
of fines in mineral flotation systems, leads to non-select recovery
of gangue mineral particles. Even though the pilot plant showed
that the target grade was frequently achieved after two stages,
employing a three stage counter current cleaning circuit with
dilution water guaranteed that the 70 per cent Pb grade product
specification was consistently achieved.
The outcome
Surveys of the cleaner block showed that residence times were as
high as one hour for each stage which was an advantage as the
air flow rate could be manipulated to control to the target grade
of 70 per cent Pb. The distinct advantage of such long residence
times was that grade could be controlled without loss of recovery
from the cleaner block. The full amount of cleaner dilution water
has not been utilised due to volume flow constraints in the main
plant.
Froth handling
Gravity flow of cleaner tailings was specified in the design. In
contrast, there was the option of gravity flow of concentrate thus
eliminating the need for froth handling pumps. Fines froths are
typically very stable, although the pilot plant demonstrated that
Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference
 BRINGING SPLIT FLOTATION TO REALITY — THE CANNINGTON EXPERIENCE
simple froth sprays were able to effectively break down the pilot
plant froths ranging from five per cent solids to 30 per cent
solids. There was always a risk of poor flow of froth between
units due to the froth tenacity if the latter system were adopted
whereas the former system incorporated froth pumps. There was
perceived to be little risk given recent improvements in froth
pump design with the new wide throat horizontal pumps and
their application in other process plant handling similar froths.
To increase pumping flexibility in handling the froth, all froth
pumps were installed with variable speed drives to allow
adjustment of pump speed.
The outcome
A well designed pump-sump system ensured that froth handling
did not become a major dilemma. To emphasise the point, the
largest pump casing at Cannington is now the fines rougher
concentrate pump with a 55 kW motor that spins so slowly that it
effectively transfers the froth to the cleaner block. Froth flow was
an issue in the OK40 tank cell launders, which were too narrow
to allow effective flow. In contrast the OK100 launders had no
difficulty handling large volumes of fine froth. Frothing did
become an issue at high collector reagent additions, a visible
signal to reduce reagent addition. A permanent spray system was
not installed at commissioning as further testing for appropriate
sprays that minimised lead mist exposure (hygiene issue). A low
pressure, large droplet, pigtail nozzles were eventually chosen.
Sprays were operated off the raw water system to eliminate
scaling issues associated with Cannington process water with the
trade off being an increased usage of a valuable commodity.
An opportunity for improvement in the spray system design is
the lift the grid mesh level on top of the tank flotation cells. The
ability to run a large number of spray lines is difficult, as support
beams limit space and access for spray installation and
operational control. The concrete footprint for the smaller tank
flotation cells in the cleaner circuit also limited the fall in the
froth launders, as pump sump heights could not be reduced. This
affected froth transfer to the concentrate sumps.
Rubber lined steel and poly pipework
All equipment associated with the conditioning and rougher
flotation of the fines was rubber lined using 6 mm bromobutyl
rubber. All slurry pipework was completed in polypropylene. An
interesting design decision was the use of C-PVC plastic with
solvent joined couplings for the 20 wt per cent sulfuric acid
pipeline. Stainless steel of any grade could not be used for
equipment or piping in direct contact with the acidic slurries due
to the presence of chlorides in process water. A hard lesson was
learnt in the fluorite leach circuit when 316 L tanks in an acidic
environment lost 2 mm thickness within two years of
commissioning and were subsequently decommissioned.
The outcome
To date no corrosion or leak issues are evident from the C-PVC
system. This C-PVC pipe work has now been installed in the
leach circuit at Cannington to handle 20 wt per cent sulfuric acid
and 15 wt per cent aluminium sulfate. The dominant issue when
installing C-PVC material is to ensure the vendors installation
instructions are followed, as a small deviation from procedure
can lead to joint failure.
Open building design
The fines flotation plant was not enclosed inside a building in
line with the existing flotation structure. The froth sprays in the
launders generally created a fine mist that could lead to
generalised corrosion of the building.
Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003
The outcome
Misting from the launder and sump sprays did indeed result in a
layer of very fine lead concentrate being deposited on any
horizontal surface. Thus the open building design prevented the
formation of a hazardous environment containing airborne lead.
Whilst many design choices were intended to avoid
foreseeable issues, some almost trivial, features were overlooked.
The best (or worst!) example of this was the design of floor slope
within the new bunded area. This design flaw, difficult to realize
from a drawing, was recognised after the first slab of concrete
had been poured but for all intentions, far too late. There was
always an opinion that the new circuit would be handling -5 µm
fine slurries that tended to act like water. Little thought was given
to the floor slope around the cyclone feed sump area that would
be handling coarse streams. Given the process upsets which
occur during start up a one hour hosing job became a four hour
task on a poor slope to the sump pump. Another important
operational issue was the finish on the concrete floor surface.
The spillage of fines onto this surface would create a slip hazard,
due to the slimily natural of the slurry.
At this point it could be reflected that with all best intentions,
some aspects of the plant design were done very well, yet it is
easy to overlook these and focus on the negative aspects of the
plant design. These negative aspects are those that might make
life a little more difficult for the plant operator, maintenance
personnel or metallurgist. Every design team has the best
intentions in mind when given guidelines on process equipment
design from the plant operations department. The key is to have a
balanced design team with operations, design and construction
personnel whose combined experience allows those subtle design
aspects to become truly great features of the final plant.
COMMISSIONING AND METALLURGICAL
PROCESS ISSUES
The new circuit was brought on line in a staged manner
following the key principle of ‘simple solutions’ (Leung et al,
2000). This allowed the existing area operators to become
familiar with the new equipment and unit process dynamics
without being too distracted from controlling the existing
flotation circuit that was still producing concentrate in the
background. Tie-in to the existing circuit was very simple and
was completed during the regular nine weekly shutdowns with
automatic valves placed to introduced flow to the new circuit.
Construction of the new flotation plant extension was completed
under budget and three weeks early in June 2001. Figure 4 shows
FIG 4 - View of the split flotation extension to the Cannington
concentrator.
77
C TORRISI and R SMITH

the new plant in the final stages of construction. Following dry During the one month period of commissioning all the
and water commissioning by the construction team, the sequence equipment items, several detailed metallurgical surveys were
of commissioning was: completed alongside the regular shift composite samples taken
by the Amdel On Stream Analysis unit. It became apparent that
1. Bringing the circuit on line with slurry using the new fines
silver and lead recoveries were below the target 85 per cent
rougher tanks as one big pipe, albeit including a two stage
which was achieved during the pilot plant testing of the process
cyclone separation circuit (the scavenger cyclones were left
as shown in Figure 2. It was interpreted that the kinetics of
offline) but then recombining the streams together. As can
flotation in the new fines roughers were not fast enough.
be seen in Figure 3 this did not include the use of the
cleaner tanks. During this time the cyclone feed sump level It was well known that lowering the pH of the conditioned
controllers were tuned as were the rougher tank level fines stream would improve the kinetics of flotation of the fine
controllers. The practice of bringing the split flotation galena and silver bearing minerals in the split flotation circuit.
circuit on and offline was performed many times allowing The dilemma was that the lower pH fines tailings when
the operators to get the sequence just right so that massive combined with cyclone underflow streams and pumped to the
surges and spills were avoided. existing conventional circuit for lead rougher flotation was
resulting in a pulp pH of 6.0. It was well known that sphalerite
2. The cleaner circuit was then brought online using process floatability improved at lower pH (El-Shall et al, 2000 and
water addition at the third cleaner where upon all level Trahar et al, 1997). Further, the resulting low pH of the flotation
controllers were tuned. Process water flowed into the plant tailings affected the performance of anionic flocculation in
rougher circuit and onto the main plant. the tailings thickener resulting in excessively dirty overflows.
3. Collector reagent (well below target addition) was added to Lime addition to pH 7.5 prior to the conventional lead roughing
the conditioning tanks creating at first a fines rougher circuit to cancel the effects of low pH was found to significantly
concentrate and after several hours, first, second and third depress coarse galena flotation. This effect in the conventional
fines cleaner concentrates. Encouragingly, the first third circuit impacted the recovery improvements from the acidic fines
cleaner concentrate averaged 68 per cent Pb even without circuit. Zinc selectivity became an issue for final product
acid addition! The beauty of an oversized cleaner circuit concentrate quality and imposed a severe constraint on the
became quickly apparent. operating parameters of the split flotation circuit.
Instead of pursuing faster kinetics by lowering the pulp pH
4. The acid addition system was next brought on line targeting
which created downstream sphalerite selectivity problems, the
a pH of 5.0. Dilute acid handling at Cannington has never
issue of poor fines recovery was stated in another way; that the
been one our strong points with pipework systems
available roughing residence time was insufficient. This approach
continually being redesigned to prevent leaks. The new
was far more sensible and allowed the fines circuit pH to be
C-PVC pipework system carrying 20 wt per cent sulfuric
maintained at greater than 5.0, thus eliminating any detrimental
acid over a distance greater than 200 m has worked well to
downstream effects. Increasing the residence time of the
date.
roughers was easily executed during a scheduled plant
5. The scavenger cyclones was the last piece of equipment to maintenance shutdown by integrating a redundant 4 × 16 m3
be brought online as these were essentially a process conventional flotation bank. Circuit recoveries immediately
optimisation unit. improved as seen in Figure 5 after 10 August 2002.

Split Flotation Plant Performance

100
Lead Grade
90 Lead Recovery
Lead Fines Concentrate Grade-Recovery (%)

No shift
80
samples
taken
70

60
Dart valve failure on Fines Rougher

50
Split f lotation brought online w ith

Planned maintenance shutdow n

Planned maintenance shutdow n

Planned maintenance shutdow n

40
extra rougher bank
A cid Addition commenced

Unplanned shutdow n

30

20

10

0
16-N ov

30-N ov

14-D ec
13-Ju l

27-Ju l
29-Ju n

5-Oct

2-Nov

28-D ec
1-Jun

15-Ju n

10-Au g

24-Au g

7-Se p

21-S ep

11-Jan
19-Oct

FIG 5 - Historical performance of the split flotation process.

78 Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003 Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference

 BRINGING SPLIT FLOTATION TO REALITY — THE CANNINGTON EXPERIENCE

Some differences between the pilot plant and the existing full
scale operation exist. A major factor was the autogenous mill
circuit discharge density. This stream now averages 40 wt per
cent solids as plant throughput had been increased from the
original design of 190 tph to 300 tph without any changes to the
existing flotation plant. At the time of pilot plant testing the plant
throughput averaged 240 tph. Lowering the plant feed density
required adding more process water upfront that resulted in plant
flow rates exceeding volumes that the existing slurry pumps in
the primary plant could not handle. Pump motor sizes were
upgraded from 90 kW to 110 kW, the maximum size possible for
the given cable size but this improvement did not remove the
maximum flow constraints.
The higher plant feed density also affected the cycloning
efficiency for -5 µm separation in the three stage cyclone circuit
resulting in a coarser cut size and hence a higher flow rate and
solids tonnage through the fines circuit. Once again conditions
during pilot plant testing differed from the conditions during
commissioning. The cyclone pilot plant operated at densities of
30 wt per cent solids which resulted in sharper more efficient
separation of fines whereas the plant feed density at the time of
commissioning the new circuit was 40 wt per cent.
Acid addition to the split flotation circuit was a two edged
sword. The addition was fundamental to the improved recoveries
of very fine galena and silver sulfide particles but on the other
hand resulted in increased sphalerite recovery to lead concentrate
in the conventional circuit. Concentrate quality parameters were
frequently exceeded and the decision was made to minimise acid
addition to the fines circuit in November 2002. With the
additional roughing capacity installed during August 2002, unit
recoveries in the newly constructed fines circuit only slightly
decreased with the whole process remaining economic. The
overall lead concentrate quality recovered with respect to zinc in
lead concentrate.
The split flotation circuit essentially represents additional
flotation capacity in a process plant which had been originally
designed to treat 1.5 Mtpa but had within five years increased
throughput to 2.1 Mtpa without any capital expenditure in the
process plant. Corporate approval was recently given for a mine
output expansion to 2.4 Mtpa. The split flotation circuit and the
associated separate processing of fine -5 µm particles remains a
core flow sheet design feature and will carry the Cannington
process plant into the future sustaining greater than 90 per cent
overall lead recoveries. The average monthly lead grade and
recovery performance for the fine fractions is listed in Table 1
and plotted in Figure 6. This shows that the split flotation circuit
has lifted the overall lead grade by four per cent to six per cent
and lead recovery by seven per cent to nine per cent for material
in the sub 9 micron fractions.

TABLE 1
Summary of plant monthly fines recovery performance.

Cannington overall monthly plant performance for fine fractions

Month C6 fraction C7 fraction
Pb Grade Ag Rec Pb Rec Pb Grade Ag Rec Pb Rec
Jul-01 68.8 88.1 85.1 58.4 76.9 72.4
Aug-01 67.6 86.9 79.0 54.6 73.2 59.1
Sep-01 69.7 85.2 83.2 59.6 75.4 71.5
Oct-01 68.3 84.4 74.6 60.1 72.3 59.1
Nov-01 66.4 87.1 81.1 61.2 73.7 64.5
Dec-01 62.3 84.3 76.4 56.3 76.5 67.7
Jan-02 66.6 87.0 79.3 60.2 78.5 67.4
Feb-02 67.3 79.6 74.5 59.1 82.5 77.4
Mar-02 68.7 87.2 85.3 55.8 76.0 68.3
Apr-02 68.9 87.9 89.2 59.8 74.5 73.2
May-02 69.0 91.1 87.9 61.2 78.8 74.0
Jun-02 69.0 87.5 86.1 60.5 74.0 67.1
Average 67.7 86.4 81.8 58.9 76.0 68.5
Cannington overall monthly plant performance with split flotation circuit
C6 fraction C7 fraction
Month Pb Grade Ag Rec Pb Rec Pb Grade Ag Rec Pb Rec
Jul-02 69.5 90.0 90.3 62.5 75.8 72.9
Aug-02 71.6 93.9 94.5 65.3 87.5 85.5
Sep-02 71.4 91.8 93.7 65.0 79.2 79.2
Oct-02 70.8 89.9 88.8 63.3 77.7 71.0
Nov-02 72.8 89.0 85.4 67.3 71.7 67.7
Dec-02 72.7 90.6 89.7 66.4 80.0 73.9
Jan-03 73.2 87.1 90.9 63.1 79.3 78.2
Average 71.7 90.3 90.5 64.7 78.7 75.5
Delta 4.0 4.0 8.7 5.8 2.7 7.0

Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003 79

C TORRISI and R SMITH
Monthly lead grade recovery position for C6 and C7 size fractions
75
70
Lead Grade %
65
60
55
50
60 65 70
FIG 6 - Monthly lead performance for ultra fine fractions before and after split flotation.
THE WAY FORWARD – CONTINUE FOLLOWING
THE KEY PRINCIPLES
Further development opportunities of the following processes are
being pursued for the split flotation process. These being:
• Improved efficiency of cyclone separation of -5 µm fines.
This will occur once the 2.4 Mtpa expansion project is
completed, improving grinding circuit performance, in the
latter half of 2003.
• Increased conditioning time of the fines with collector prior
to flotation. This has been completed by running both sets of
conditioning tanks in parallel.
• Developing a better understanding of the mechanisms for
sphalerite activation in the conventional circuit.
• Increasing conventional cleaning capacity in the primary
circuit to three stages, as part of the 2.4 Mtpa expansion
project.
The split flotation process was implemented to counteract a
life of mine planned forecast deterioration of concentrator output
as a result of decreasing head grades and treatment of difficult
ore mineralogy. Ore treatment has become more difficult as the
‘cream’ ores were depleted during the early years of the
Cannington project to provide rapid payback. The split flotation
process remains a strategic value adding asset, which can only be
further optimised as naturally occurs in every mineral processing
plant in Australia.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although too many to name individually, the authors would like
to thank the design and construction team and also the process
operators and maintenance personnel on the Dragons, Hawks and
Wallabies crews at Cannington. Their persistence and
determination to see a dream come alive has been prominent in
ensuring the success of the project.
80
C6 fraction
C6 fraction after split flotation
C7 fraction
C7 fraction after split flotation
75 80 85 90 95 100
Lead Recovery % wrt plant feed
REFERENCES
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Townsville, QLD, 21 - 23 July 2003 Eighth Mill Operators’ Conference