Automated flotation control at Jim Walter Resources, Mining Division
- Jim Walters Resources, Inc., Brookwood, AL (United States)
Jim Walter Resources (JWR), Mining Division, operates in west-central Alabama in Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties. Their products are divided into two grades, three to four million tons of high Btu, low sulfur steam coal, and five to six million tons of medium to low volatile metallurgical coal. Predominantly, the Blue Creek seam of coal in the Warrior Basin is mined. This coal is known for its high Btu content, low sulfur, and strong coking qualities, coupled with a very high grindability. This last quality of high grindability has been very challenging for their preparation plants. Normally, after some processing degradation, their clean coal product will range from 40--50% minus 28 mesh. One can easily see from these numbers that froth flotation is critical to clean coal recovery and mine cost. Flotation, unlike most processing equipment, keeps most of its activity and a lot of its chemistry under a bed of froth in the cells. there are many operating variables that are constantly changing, and Management, no matter how responsive they are, cannot react quickly enough. Therefore, automated flotation appeared to be the natural course of action for a mining company that produces a minimum of 40% of its marketable product from flotation cells. The two companies that were supply their flotation chemicals came forward with proposals to fill their needs. Nalco, who has for some time had their Opticus system being tested and utilized in the industry, and Stockhausen (formerly Betz Chemical Co.). Stockhausen had no system of their own, but acquired a system from Process Technology, Inc. (PTI). JWR assigned a plant to each vendor for installation of their systems. The paper describes both systems and their performance.
- OSTI ID:
- 143774
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305264-; TRN: IM9413%%284
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: COAL PREP `93: 10th international coal preparation exhibition and conference, Lexington, KY (United States), 4-6 May 1993; Other Information: PBD: 1993; Related Information: Is Part Of Coal prep `93: 10th international coal preparation exhibition and conference; PB: 298 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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