Arizona republican., 1916-03-05
THE FLOTATION PROCESS

The sensation of the day in mining cess of the Notation process. Intro ddced as an adjunct to the older meth nds Of milling, the percentage of eX- traction of valuable minerals from ore mas been raised in remarkable way, and many ores that previously could not be exploited at all have now been rendered commercial.
 owing to the bane Of a deadly litiga- ton over the flotation process. the mouths of the mill men practicing the new art have in the main been closed. One result of this has been that the press has been full of sensational and misleading statements about flotation- statements which could not he author itatively corrected. The woods are full of so-called mill experts whose sole equipment is can of oil and a stirring device. Not long ago a mine in the Rocky Mountains, which previously had failed to command any attention, was sold on the strength of fiotation experiments that required one hour to make
 According to the idea of the eullihlH public, you break down your ore in the mine and mix it with oil and acid and
 the trick is done But that is not so. ! l. is q complicated art The mill man wants data about this art. not a col l lection of floWery phrases, merely eX- l plaining that flotation means that min 1 erals are floated. The mill man wants l to know fully and in detail how flota-
 tion IS applied to individual ores.
 Fortunately some mill men who have
 had experience in the practice of flo-
 tation and have no property interests
 that might he endangered by lawsuits
 are now beginning to take up theT pens and the literature of the subject
 is at last growing in a useful and au-
 thoritative way. There is no doubt that henceforth it will increase rapidly
 After all flotation is not such a mys- 1 terious subject as many pretend. II is | simply species of mechanical COnCen-
 tration. As compared with ordinary processes. it is what was characterized in the "Journal'' of 1907. in describing Notation as then practiced at Golconda- 1 Nevada. as "concentration upside down." In ordinary methods the val uablo mineral is caused to sink In | Notation it is caused to rise The great advantage of the latter method lies in its obviation of the slime problem, his
 tnrically troublesome. Ore is now de- i ilberately slimed al all events crushed very finely. and the minerals to he sep arated are thereby fully released, which 1 together with other features of the process, enables a phenomenallv high
 recovery to be made The advantage
 of the process is measured by the raising of the o!d percentage of eX- | traction in ore dressing 6 to = per cent to the present. day figures of s. to 95 per cent
 So far. the flotation process has been i practiced chiefly in conjunction with
 the older methods of mechanical con- centration: that is. the ore is crushed relatively coarsely and jigged and ta- bled in the ordinary way, the middLngs | CT tailings or both being then reground and treated in the flotation apparatus
 It is probable that the next develop n.ent will be to treat all of the ore by Itha flotation process. When that comes about, the troubles of the smelters in treating fine ores will really begin Engineering and Mining Journal.