Ore Separator
An Effective Method Of Separating Ore
Separating valuable metals from waste has always been a problem. In 1901 a Melbourne brewer named Charles Potter tried mixing ore in a vat with water and acid. Bubbles made by the acid carried a froth of minerals to the surface of the vat where it could be skimmed off. At the same time, Guillaume Delprat, a mining engineer with BHP, had discovered the same idea by accident.
The froth-flotation process needed years of experimentation before it worked well but it was copied by mining companies all over the world and is still used.
