Flotation process

Japanese: 浮遊選鉱 - ふゆうせんこう（英語表記）flotation process

A type of mineral dressing method. When separating useful metallic minerals from mined raw ore, the ore is floated in a medium and gangue minerals are allowed to sink, separating the two. There are three types: (1) Thin film flotation (film flotation) This method utilizes the hydrophilic nature of gangue minerals, submerging the ore in water to allow only the metallic minerals to float. (2) Multiple oil flotation This method involves stirring crushed ore in water with a large amount of oil, leaving it to stand, and then recovering the metallic minerals concentrated at the interface between the water layer and the oil layer. (3) Foam flotation (froth flotation) When crushed ore and a small amount of oil such as coal tar or pine oil are thoroughly stirred in water while passing air bubbles through them, the metallic mineral particles wrapped in an oil film adhere to the air bubbles and float to the surface of the water. These are scraped off to obtain the concentrate. Gangue minerals are highly hydrophilic, so they do not adhere to the oil veins and settle to the bottom. The flotation method mainly used today is the foam flotation method. In addition, a flotation method that recovers one type of mineral from an ore as a concentrate is generally called single flotation, and when two or more types of useful minerals are contained in an ore, there are three methods for separating and recovering them: preferential flotation, direct preferential flotation, and integrated flotation.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

選鉱法の一種。採掘した原鉱石から有用金属鉱物を分けるとき，媒質中に浮べ，脈石鉱物を沈めて両者を分離する方法で，次の3種がある。 (1) 薄膜浮遊法 (皮膜浮選) 　脈石鉱物の親水性を利用したもので，水中に沈め，金属鉱物だけを浮かせる方法。 (2) 多油浮遊法　粉砕した鉱石を多量の油とともに水中で攪拌し，放置したのち，水層と油層の境界面に濃集した金属鉱物を回収する方法。 (3) 泡沫浮遊法 (フロス浮選) 　粉砕した鉱石と少量のコールタール，パイン油などの油を水中で気泡を通じながら十分攪拌すると，油膜に包まれた金属鉱物粒は気泡に付着して水面に浮ぶ。これをかき取って精鉱を得る方法。脈石鉱物は親水性が強いので油脈に付着せず底部に沈殿する。今日行われている浮遊選鉱はおもにこの泡沫浮遊法である。また，一般に鉱石中の1種類の鉱物を精鉱として回収する浮選方式を単一浮選と呼び，2種類以上の有用鉱物が含有されている場合の分離・回収方法には優先浮選，直接優先浮選，総合浮選の3種がある。

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