Flotation derived from the word meaning float. Flotation can be interpreted as a separation of a substance from other substances in a liquid or a solution based on differences in surface properties of the substance to be separated, where the substances that remain hydrophilic aqueous phase while hydrophobic substances that are air bubbles will be bound by and will be brought to the surface solution and form bubbles which can then be separated from the liquid, where flotation process aims to separate and produce a metal concentrate. This process produces metals from ore concentrates at the mine by separating valuable minerals from impurities that cover it. This process is said to have been discovered by a miner who see the process of washing machine that is used as a means of washing the dirty work clothes, and the washers that generate bubbles in the foam.
The main step in mineral processing are crushing, grinding ore to a size change the amount of fine sand grains in order to liberate the metal to the separation process and to prepare the appropriate size to the next process. Flotation on the gold metal is very effective if the gold contained in sulfide minerals such as phyrite, other than that this process is often done if the gold ore minerals join copper, zinc or lead. Flotation process is generally not free floating particles of gold but very effective if the gold is associated with sulfide minerals such as pyrite. In a typical pyrytic gold ore, gold formulated in a crystal structure of iron sulfide. Highly oxidized ores generally do not respond well to flotation. Flotation process consists of mineral concentrates produced through the use of chemical conditioning agents followed by intense agitation and Air Sparging of agitated ore slurry to produce mineral-rich foam concentrate.
Factors affecting the flotation is particle size, pH, surfactant, and other chemicals, such as coagulant. Large particle size makes these particles tend to settle so hard to be able to react in flotation. While high pH particles tend to settle. The function of surfactant is a collector which is the reagents that have polar groups and non polar groups at once. collectors will change the nature of the particles from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. While the addition of coagulant can result in the size of the particles become larger. Another factor affecting the rate of flotation is the air that serves as the binder particles have hydrophobic surface properties, percent solids, for the flotation of coarse particles can be done with a large percent solids and vice versa, a large feed rate which affects the capacity and time to live. The rate of flushing air which serves to drain the concentrate into the lounder. The thickness of the layer of froth and bubble size also affect the flotation.
The advantage of the flotation process is that gold values are generally released on a fairly coarse particle size (28 mesh) which means that the cost of milling ore minimized. Reagents used to separate generally non-toxic, which means that the cost of tailings disposal is very low
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