Abstract

This short communication presents the kinetic characterization of 85 batch flotation tests based on an inversion approach, extending the work reported by Vinnett et al. (2019). For first-order systems, the mineral recovery R(t) as a function of time t can be expressed as R(t) = R-infinity integral(infinity)(0)(1 - e(-kt))F(k)dk, where R-infinity is the maximum recovery, k is the rate constant and F(k) is the flotation rate distribution. An arrangement of this expression allows the estimation of R infinity F(k) by discretizing the integral term. A linear system is solved by a regularization approach that accounts for the fitting error of R(t) and the roughness of R infinity F(k). Thus, R-infinity is obtained, given integral F-infinity (0)(k)dk = 1. The results show a good agreement with those obtained from F(k) following a Gamma distribution (non-linear regression), in terms of: Sum of Squared Residuals, cross-validated R-2, F(k) shapes and range for the R-infinity estimates.