Dense medium separation

Separations in a dense medium, also called ‘flotation ‘, make use of a liquid medium into which are plunged the components to be separated. This medium may be water, an organic liquor (laboratory only), a brine (calcium chloride or zinc type salts) or a suspension made from clay, sand, magnetite or ferrosilicon, the suspension thus behaving like a pseudo-fluid. The mediums cover densities from 1.0 to over 3.0, the latter being adjusted to an intermediary value to that of the components to be separated with a precision of (0.05). The heaviest  components flow in the medium whilst the lightest float and are thus recovered separately.

The CTP carries out separations at laboratory level in a liquor in order to study the potential of the technique or to assess the liberation meshes (granulo-densimetry). It has a pilot flotation unit of the vibrating drum variety, which allows the technique based on suspensions to be continuously tested.