Minerals Engineering 21 (2008) 846–850

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

On lifetime costs of flotation operations

Antti Rinne, Aleksi Peltola *
Outotec, Riihitontuntie 7, P.O. Box 84, Espoo, Finland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Overall economy of a flotation operation bears much more than investment costs. The lifetime operation
Received 3 December 2007 and maintenance of a flotation machine may affect the economy of a project far more than a million saved
Accepted 22 April 2008 in investment.
Available online 24 June 2008
Studying the long-term effects on investments is worthwhile as they often surpass any apparent sav-
ings in capital expenditure. The optimal solution does not even need to be more expensive. Besides, with
Keywords: high operating costs, time is never on one’s side.
Flotation machines
In the paper various flotation cell arrangements are compared in a simplified example. The example
Mineral processing
Process optimisation
considers capital equipment investment costs, power delivery arrangements, energy costs, and mainte-
Agitation nance costs throughout a 25-year ownership. Also effects on CO2 emissions are discussed.
The paper will illustrate how proper choice of equipment and modern power delivery and control
methods will result in significant benefits in lifetime costs and profitability of flotation operations.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
When an investment for a new flotation plant is evaluated, the
emphasis is often in minimizing the capital expenditures. Until re-
cently, life cycle cost (LCC) as a criterion for selecting beneficiation
equipment has played only a small role in the final decision mak-
ing. A quick analysis discussed below shows that roughly 60–80%
of the total 25-year cycle costs for a large flotation machine are
spent on energy while the initial investment comprises less than
10%. As a result, if a small saving in investment is achieved by com-
promising energy efficiency, it can quickly turn into big losses in
operational costs. If one looks for savings in the long run, life cycle
cost analysis shows that the importance of the investment cost is
almost negligible.
Modern technology can offer completely new solutions for opti-
mizing flotation processes both in terms of efficiency and metal-
lurgy. Mechanical flotation machines have traditionally been
limited by their relatively narrow range of aeration rate, fixed
mechanism dimensions and speed. New flotation machine designs
allow much wider adaptability with speed control, shear adjust-
ment and wider range of air feed.
More attention should be paid on maintenance of critical com-
ponents. Cases are known where significant metallurgical losses
have been observed due to poor condition of critical wear parts.
This paper discusses the economy of flotation projects from the
life cycle cost perspective. The examples have been calculated
based on generic average values. There is a wide variation in costs
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 20 529 2772; fax: +358 20 529 2998.
E-mail address: aleksi.peltola@outotec.com (A. Peltola).
between locations and specific processes, but averages give a good
starting point to more specific analysis.
2. Life cycle costs of flotation operations
Life cycle cost analysis simply considers the lifetime operation
and maintenance costs of a flotation operation in addition to the
initial investment, in selecting the most economical equipment.
It may be feasible to pay higher initial cost if one saves in opera-
tional expenditures.
The relevant cost factors for a flotation plant are investment, en-
ergy and reagent consumption, and maintenance. All these should
be quantified for the estimated service life of the equipment. In or-
der to illustrate the typical deviation of the relevant cost factors,
typical ownership costs of a large mechanical flotation machine
(100–200 m3) are considered in brief.
In this consideration, the investment costs consist of merely
equipment costs since the deviation in infrastructure, installation,
and assembly is significant. Power draw of the equipment consid-
ers the power required for agitation and aeration. Maintenance
proportion is determined by studying failure rates, costs, and nor-
malized maintenance times of the wearing parts. Unit prices for
maintenance services, electricity, and reagents are presented in Ta-
ble 1. Typical total ownership costs over the time span of 25 years
are presented in Fig. 1.
There is high variation in the cost factors; more specific results
can be easily obtained by inserting the actual rates for electricity,
reagents and labor as well as for the cost of capital in the calcula-
tion model. In order to achieve accurate costing, a sensitivity anal-
ysis should be performed to understand the relationships between

0892-6875/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2008.04.018
 A. Rinne, A. Peltola / Minerals Engineering 21 (2008) 846–850 847

Table 1 2.2. Operational expenditures

Average rates for electricity, reagents, and maintenance labor

Power draw 138.82 kW The operational costs of a flotation machine depend on the effi-
Cost of electricity 0.06 €/kWh ciency of the equipment. Process efficiency, energy efficiency and
Annual operating hours 8300.00 h availability are discussed below.
Cost of capital 10.00 %
Reagents 13,800.00 €/a
Hourly rate of maintenance services 50.00 €/a 2.2.1. Process efficiency
The key mechanical aspect for good flotation process efficiency
is the proper condition of critical wear components. Missing rotor
or stator parts make the cell surface wavy and cause the froth to
collapse. Air dispersion is reduced and decreased pumping causes
sanding. The use of copied spare parts has often caused problems
(see Fig. 2). Experience has shown that non-standard spare parts
often give a shorter wear life and in some cases decrease the met-
allurgical efficiency. The real savings that can be achieved by using
worn out or low quality parts are negligible when compared to en-
ergy costs of the same equipment. If even small metallurgical
losses occur because of poorly working equipment the savings in
maintenance quickly become expenses. In order to obtain optimal
availability performance it is safest to use only original equipment
Fig. 1. Breakdown of a large flotation cell expenses over the lifespan of 25 years. manufacturer’s spare parts.
Comparisons of flotation operations using different technolo-
gies are published in two recent papers (Froehling et al., 2005;
total ownership costs and uncertainties of each activity. That is, is-
Coleman et al., 2006). These papers give a good view of the effect
sues such as inflation rate, expected efficiency of resources, ex-
of metallurgical performance as well as maintenance aspects on
pected variation in energy costs etc. should be considered.
overall economics. The first paper discusses of a retrofit from
The breakdown strongly suggests that the most significant life
self-aspirated flotation cells to forced air TankCellÒ mixing tech-
cycle cost item in flotation operations is the cost of electricity. Thus
nology which resulted in significant improvements in perfor-
the operational expenditures are heavily influenced by the energy
mance. The second paper compares Escondida’s self-aspirated
price and the energy efficiency of the equipment used for
flotation cell circuit to the TankCellÒ circuit. The latter showed sig-
production.
nificantly better performance also in this comparison.
2.1. Capital expenditures
2.2.2. Energy efficiency
The traditional drive mechanism of a flotation machine consists
A given requirement for flotation capacity may be satisfied by
of a single-staged V-belt drive connected to a low-speed induction
several scenarios which may differ significantly in terms of re-
motor. Theoretically the efficiency of the V-belt drive is 97–98%
quired footprint, investment cost and required maintenance re-
provided that the belts are optimally sized, properly aligned and
sources, etc. The most significant decisions concern the
tightened to correct belt tension. Unfortunately in practice this sit-
implemented unit size and the principle of operation of the equip-
uation is rather rare and the actual efficiency is therefore lower. As
ment. In general, larger flotation cell units lead to lower invest-
the belts wear and stretch readjustments are required. This is often
ment, energy and maintenance costs as measured in unit price
impossible without shutdown of the equipment, which, in turn,
per unit of installed volume.
would result in reduced availability. Similar challenges occur also

Fig. 2. Pirate flotation cell mixer spare parts after two weeks of use.
848 A. Rinne, A. Peltola / Minerals Engineering 21 (2008) 846–850
Fig. 3. Misaligned V-belt pulleys.
with gearbox-driven flotation machines when the power from the
electric motor is transferred to the gearbox through a V-belt drive.
Fig. 3 shows an example of a misalignment.
In addition to the power transfer ratio of the drive mechanism,
the rotation speed of the rotor and the air feed equipment are
important factor in the electrical energy consumption. Studies on
variable speed drive mechanisms have been conducted indicating
a certain range of regulation in the rotor speed where the metallur-
gical performance of the flotation machine is practically the same.
However, the rotation speed has a significant effect on the
power draw of the mixing mechanism. The relationship can be
simply expressed as
1
P¼  p  Q;
g unit and there is a reserve drive standing by, the unplanned down-
where P, is the power draw; g, is hydraulic efficiency of the mech-
anism; p, is pressure difference generated by the mixing mecha-
nism, and Q, is the volume flow rate through the mixing
mechanism.
The pressure difference over the mixing mechanism is propor-
tional to the rotation speed squared and the volume flow rate is di-
rectly proportional to it. Thus the power draw of the mixing
mechanism is proportional to the third power of the rotation
speed. Consequently, a minor reduction in rotation speed may have
no effect on process performance but a significant effect on the en-
ergy consumption. For example, 10% reduction in rotation speed
roughly equals to 27% reduction in power draw.
A drive mechanism that enables the adjustment of the rotation
speed may produce significant savings in electricity consumption.
There are internal case studies, which have shown that a variable
speed drive may have payback time of only few months, if the pro-
cess allows optimization of rotation speed.
The same principles apply also to air blowers. Significant sav-
ings may be achieved if the air blower is not driven at maximum
power against a regulating valve but at a speed that is sufficient
to maintain the required airflow. Such optimization can be done
using cell-specific air blowers with variable speed drives.
2.2.3. Availability performance
One cannot consider operational performance without also con-
sidering the availability of the equipment. According to Lyytikäi-
Availability Performance
Reliability Maintainability Supportability
Performance Performance Performance
Fig. 4. Factors affecting the availability performance. (Lyytikäinen 1987).
nen (1987), the process yield is product of process performance
and availability performance.
Availability performance can be further divided into three sub-
categories, as presented in Fig. 4.
Reliability of the equipment refers to the probability of a unit
functioning normally when used according to specific conditions
for at least a given period of time. Reliability can be estimated from
the failure rate of the equipment.
Maintainability can be defined as the ability of an item to be re-
tained in a state in which it can perform the required function,
when maintenance is performed using stated procedures and re-
sources. For flotation machines this means ease of maintenance
or replacement of mixing or drive mechanisms. For example, if
the drive mechanism can be removed from the cell as a complete
time can be minimized and thus the availability is not compro-
mised even by events of sudden malfunctions.
Supportability is the availability of the material required to
keep the system operational. In general, standard components
are technically and economically optimized structural solutions,
which have decent availability. In addition, manufacturers of stan-
dard components benefit from economies of scale and thus the
costs of standard components are usually lower as compared to
craft production.
3. The potential of new technology
3.1. Use new equipment
Outotec’s flotation cells have always been customized for ore
and process characteristics to optimize metallurgical results. Any-
how, ore properties change during equipment lifetime or the same
equipment may be utilized for a new pit close to original operation.
The function of a single cell in the flowsheet can be changed. Mines
with different types of ore are also relatively common and change
from one ore type to another often causes process hiccups. Espe-
cially in this kind of cases optimization of flotation machine
parameters such as mixer speed or power consumption would be
beneficial. But there is a lot to be done also at flotation operations
with no particular troubles. The effect of optimal air dispersion,
mixer speed and shear are discussed below.
3.2. Leading edge technology for process optimization
3.2.1. Disperse the right amount of air
Optimal air dispersion is one of the basic requirements for good
metallurgical performance. Plants operating with forced air cells
have often noticed that the best results are achieved using individ-
ual and varying air feed rate in each cell. In traditional flotation
mechanisms the air feed is limited by the reduction of power draw
 A. Rinne, A. Peltola / Minerals Engineering 21 (2008) 846–850
Fig. 5. Power draw versus air feed-curves of FloatForceTM and OK mechanisms.
and mixing, or by reduced dispersion of air making the froth sur-
face unstable and causing the froth to collapse. Outotec’s new
mechanism design, the FloatForceTM, pushes further the maximum
air feed limit compared to other existing designs. As a result the
cell surface is steady in all situations and the pumping rate of
the mechanism is only slightly affected by air. Because of the flat
power curve less power is needed when the mechanism is oper-
ated without air. This allows smaller motors and benefits both in
investment and operating costs because of more efficient operation
of the motor. Fig. 5 presents power draws of OK and FloatForceTM
mechanisms in comparative conditions Grönstarnd et al. (2006).
3.2.2. Adjust mixer speed
The easiest solution for adjusting mixer speed is a variable
speed drive (VSD). A frequency converter can theoretically be in-
stalled in most of existing flotation cell drives but compatibility
with existing equipment such as electric motor must be checked.
Typical adjustment range of a flotation cell with VSD lies between
75% and 110% of original shaft speed if there are no special limi-
tations in the existing equipment. Initial process test results indi-
cate two different behaviors with moderate speed adjustments.
More often changes in metallurgy are negligible but significant
changes in power consumption can be seen. The initial results
in full-scale plant test showed no difference in metallurgy even
with 50% lower power consumption compared to starting point.
When this is compared to the findings in Fig. 1 the significance
of power draw estimation can be understood. More detailed test
results will be reported later. In some cases optimal speed shows
optimal metallurgical point of the examined flotation cell. It is still
likely that the optimal speed of each cell even within the same
plant varies.
3.2.3. Add more shear to boost recovery
The role of shear, or rotor–stator gap, has also been investi-
gated. Earlier testwork has shown that smaller rotor–stator gap
is beneficial especially for fine and ultra fine particle flotation.
However, recent results indicate that also recovery of coarse parti-
cles can be increased at the same time. It has also been observed
that motor speed adjustment at the same time has a significant ef-
fect on the results (Bilney et al., 2006).
3.2.4. The benefits of the recent improvements
The potential of the recent improvements can be illustrated in a
simple chart. Typical power draw curves of a flotation cell
equipped with VSD and FloatForceTM mechanism and a cell with
conventional fixed speed drive with the old OK-mechanism are
presented in Fig. 6. The main benefit of the new arrangement is
849
Fig. 6. Typical power draw curves of VSD with FloatForceTM mechanism and stan-
dard drive with OK-mechanism.
the possibility to adjust the cell during normal operation. The opti-
mal flotation cell operation point with VSD and FloatForceTM rotor
can be found in the two-dimensional control space whereas the
operation range of the old drive is bound to one curve. For a self-
aspirated cell the control range is only one point whose position
depends on slurry density. The main benefit of the new arrange-
ment is the possibility to adjust the cell during normal operation.
Adjustment of the rotor–stator gap provides another offline param-
eter that creates a family of curves for each gap value.
3.2.5. Which parameters do actually make the difference?
A lot of research work and discussion is going on in the search
for optimum metallurgy of each ore type. Among the most com-
mon tasks is optimization of basic parameters like bubble size
and installed power.
But how do we actually generate an optimal bubble size in a
modern large flotation cell? Controlling bubble size distributions
in a laboratory scale flotation machine is a subject for many stud-
ies, but research done with large-scale cells is much more limited.
Scale up of the findings to industrial cell sizes is not very straight-
forward either.
How is a powerful flotation machine determined? Is installed
motor power the same as high measured total power consumption
of a mixer drive? By installing a 250 kW motor instead of 100 kW
the measurable power consumption of the cell increases for sure
due to unfavorable operating point of the motor. When the mixer
is updated to correspond the larger motor, what is really sought
after with the power increase? Optimal and higher speed for opti-
mal bubble size distribution or more shear? Moving the slurry
around in the tank does not necessarily make a big difference if
the basic parameters remain the same. In some cases extra power
may only make the situation worse by causing unstable cell surface
and froth.
Today, we have a possibility to find out answers to at least some
of these questions by selecting new mechanism design and VSD.
4. Summary
Let us look at the importance of the energy efficiency and selec-
tion of the optimal equipment size by considering a flotation plant
requiring, for example, 1800 m3 of flotation volume. This require-
ment can be fulfilled via five possible scenarios:
 18 individual 100 m3 cells in two rows of nine.
 Nine 200 m3 cells as a single line of nine.
 Nine 200 m3 cells with variable speed drive mechanisms
enabling optimization of the rotation speed, say, 5% lower than
the nominal rotation speed.
850 A. Rinne, A. Peltola / Minerals Engineering 21 (2008) 846–850

100.0
100.0
86.1

80.0 76.6
67.5
62.3
60.0

40.0

20.0

0.0
200-m3 cells, 300-m3 cells,
100-m3 cells 200-m3 cells optimized 300-m3 cells optimized
rotation speed rotation speed
Investment costs 11.9 7.4 8.2 7.0 7.7
Reagents 18.7 17.0 17.0 15.4 15.4
Maintenance 9.4 5.8 6.0 3.5 3.6
Energy 60.0 55.9 45.4 41.5 35.6
LCC 100.0 86.1 76.6 67.5 62.3

Fig. 7. Relative investment costs of different flotation options.

 Six 300 m3 cells as a single line of six.
 Six 300 m3 cells with variable speed drive mechanisms enabling
5% lower rotation speed.
Relative investment, energy, reagent and maintenance costs are
presented in Fig. 7. The trend towards larger units is obvious when
looking at the comparison. Another leap of similar magnitude can
still be taken if the process enables lower mixer speed. The example
has been calculated with 5% speed change; since the power con-
sumption of a mixer is proportional to the third power of the rota-
tional speed this results in 15% savings of the energy cost. As the
life cycle is rather long, the effect of the salvage value to the overall
costs is low. In addition the salvage value is difficult to determine
and may even be negative – one must pay to get rid of the commod-
ity. Consequently, salvage value is ignored in the evaluation.
5. Conclusions and discussion
As presented in Fig. 7, the larger cells have significant advanta-
ges in capital costs. If one selects eighteen 100 m3 cells instead of
six 300 m3 cells, the initial investment cost is approximately 50%
higher. The economic advantages continue also in areas such as
maintenance, instrumentation and building costs since there are
fewer units and the required footprint is smaller.
It is also suggested that a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis
is a cost effective method for maximizing the life cycle profits of
flotation operations. That is, in addition to just initial investment,
all project costs and options should be taken into consideration
in the analysis.
As mentioned above, energy efficiency has a significant effect on
the life cycle economy. One aspect of it is that at least 75% of the
industrial world’s energy is produced using fossil fuels that result
carbon dioxide emissions. The significance of proper choice of
equipment from this point of view can be illustrated by consider-
ing the fact that the annual difference in energy consumption be-
tween eighteen 100 m3 cells and six 300 m3 cells with optimized
rotation speed is approximately 4.72 GWh/a which corresponds
to approximately 4.32 million kilograms of carbon dioxide if the
energy is produced in a fossil fuel power plant. The amount equals
to one hundred average passenger cars driving approximately
270,000 km. To prevent climate change, governments are tighten-
ing emission standards and emission trading is implemented to
control pollution.
To conclude, proper choice of equipment and modern power
delivery and control methods will result in significant savings in
investment costs and lower energy consumption to compensate
against rising energy price.
References
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Kanowna Belle Gold Mine. In: Metallurgical Plant Design and Operating
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Billiton’s Minera Escondida flotation concentrators. In: Canadian Mineral
Processors 38th Annual Operators Conference, Ottawa, Canada, January 17–
19, 2006.
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