INRTU Tests Domestic Flotation Reagents by RPE Chempack

Department of Mineral Processing and Environmental Protection named after S.B. Leonov develops scientific and educational cooperation with RPE "Chempack", Perm, Russia. The INRTU staff is testing 15 domestic reagents for flotation enrichment of polymetallic ores for their possible industrial application. The research is carried out under the Priority 2030 Program.

Associate Professor Aleksandr Burdonov, Head of the Flotation and Reagent Chemistry Laboratory, noted that Chempack provides an efficient educational support for the mining and ecology specialists. The University and the company are promoting each other on the market. The partners summarized their work experience in an article for the Gold and Technologies journal.

"We use Chempack products in research projects, lab work in the "Chemistry and application of flotation reagents", "Flotation enrichment methods", "Hydrometallurgical processing" courses.

Thanks to cooperation with the Perm company, the 3-5 year students successfully complete their project activities. We broaden the INRTU students' professional outlook, and Chempack receives recommendations on improving reagent performance. The substances are also tested at the mining and processing sites.

One of the joint research projects is the development of an automated system for monitoring the flotation quality by computer vision-based foam analysis," says Aleksandr Burdonov.

Lilia Vasilieva, a 4-year student of the Mineral Enrichment program, was one of the first to test the Chempack reagents. In the third year of her project activity she learned the basics of flotation and methods of substance effectiveness evaluation. She presented the project results in an article for INRTU Young Researchers journal. The co-authors were Associate Professor Aleksandr Burdonov and students Elena Maksimova and Bair Tsybenov. According to the future enrichment engineer, conducting lab experiments and writing articles is a great experience to understand how plants work.

"Through my research on the flotation activity of chemical compounds, I immersed myself in the operation of mining and processing plants much earlier than my first industrial internship. Studying the literature and experimenting in the Flotation and Reagent Chemistry Lab facilitated my work at the Albyn Mine (an Atlas Mining company) in the Amur Region.

Now my team and I are comparing methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) foaming agent with two domestic analogues by Chempack. We expect some interesting results, which we will publish in a scientific paper," Lilia Vasilieva said.

At present, INRTU and Chempack are developing a road map. The future enrichment engineers are expected to do their practical training in Perm, and the teachers will be sent for internships. The University and the company are implementing a scholarship program for both students and post-graduates conducting research on reagent chemistry.

INFORMATION:

Research and Production Enterprise "Chempack" has been making products for oil and gas, mining, chemical, construction, metallurgy and engineering industries since 2006. The high quality of the product line is confirmed by Rosstandart certificates.