Mining & Extraction

Recover What Others Leave Behind.

Fine particles are slipping through your flotation circuit — and taking your margins with them. In published flotation research, ultrafine bubbles recover fines that standard bubbles miss and cut collector and frother demand by up to 50%. We build the hardware that puts them in your circuit.

Run the Heap Leach ROI Model
-50%
Chemical Costs
(Collector & Frother Savings)
+21%
Fine Particle Recovery
(Previously Lost to Tailings)
15× Faster
Attachment Speed
(27ms vs 400ms)
The Problem

Valuable Minerals Are Leaving in Your Tailings

Fine and ultrafine particles are invisible to standard flotation bubbles. They slip through your circuit and end up in tailings — taking your revenue with them. Every ton of unrecovered mineral is money you'll never see again.

The Solution

Physics That Captures What Chemistry Can't

Our ultrafine bubbles attach directly to fine mineral surfaces, creating aggregates that standard bubbles can easily lift. The result: higher recovery rates, dramatically lower reagent costs, and faster flotation kinetics — all without adding complexity to your circuit.

Key Benefits

diamond

Get More From Every Ton

Capture ultrafine valuable minerals that were previously going straight to tailings. Recovery increases of 16–21% in controlled trials.

savings

Cut Reagent Costs in Half

Ultrafine bubbles act as a secondary collector, reducing your need for chemical collectors and frothers by up to 50% while maintaining or improving grade.

speed

Faster Throughput, Lower Energy

Attachment speed increases 15× (from 400ms to 27ms), meaning shorter residence times, smaller tanks, and higher capacity from your existing circuit.

Get in Touch

How Much Revenue Is Hiding in Your Tailings?

Tell us your ore type, particle size distribution, and current recovery rates. We'll show you exactly what our system can recover — in 48 hours.

Run the Heap Leach ROI Model

The calculator models heap leaching — where oxygen is a reactant and most barren solutions run below their cyanide-to-oxygen optimum. The flotation results on this page are a separate unit operation and are not modelled by it.

The Science Behind the Results

How It Works — With the Research to Back It Up

Every flotation circuit faces the same physical limits: fine particle loss, high reagent costs, slow kinetics, and toxic tailings. Here's exactly how ultrafine bubble technology breaks through each one — backed by peer-reviewed data.

Figures below are from independent, peer-reviewed studies unless marked KST field data.

Problem: Ultrafine Minerals Are Slipping Through Your Circuitkeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Fine and ultrafine particles (<20 μm) don't collide with standard bubbles efficiently — they pass right through your flotation cell and end up in tailings as lost revenue. Ahmadi et al., 2014
What We Do: Our ultrafine bubbles bridge hydrophobic surfaces, creating aggregates from fine particles that standard bubbles can lift. In chalcopyrite trials, recovery increased 16–21% for the finest fractions.
Zhou et al., 2020 Dutta & Mitra, 2025
Problem: Your Chemical Bill Is Eating Your Marginskeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Conventional flotation requires excessive dosages of collectors and frothers to achieve acceptable recoveries — driving up operating costs and your environmental footprint. Peng & Yu, 2015
What We Do: Ultrafine bubbles act as a secondary collector, naturally increasing surface hydrophobicity. In published coal and phosphate work, reagent use dropped by up to 50% while maintaining or improving grade.
Ramírez-Madrid et al., 2025 Tao, 2022
Problem: Clay Is Coating Your Valuable Mineralskeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Clay minerals coat the surfaces of your valuable minerals, blocking collectors from attaching and preventing bubble pickup. The result: poor recovery and wasted reagent.
What We Do: Hydrodynamic cavitation generates shockwaves that physically blast clay coatings off mineral surfaces. In coal flotation, this cleaning effect boosted combustible recovery to 86.6%. The published record is ore-specific, not uniform: on a high-clay copper ore, nanobubbles intensified slime coatings and reduced recovery — clay chemistry decides, so we test your ore first. Ramírez-Madrid et al., 2025
Problem: Coarse Particles Keep Falling Off Your Bubbleskeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Large particles (>150 μm) detach from bubbles due to their weight and cell turbulence — limiting your recovery in the rougher stage. Rosa & Rubio, 2018
What We Do: Ultrafine bubbles create a stable coating on coarse particle surfaces, strengthening attachment and preventing detachment. Recovery of coarse quartz (290 μm) increased by 23%. Nazari et al., 2022
Problem: Flotation Is Too Slow for Your Throughput Targetskeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Slow bubble-particle attachment rates mean longer residence times, oversized tank volumes, and higher energy costs — all of which limit your throughput. Chipakwe et al., 2022
What We Do: Ultrafine bubbles dramatically accelerate attachment kinetics. In phosphate flotation, the rate constant nearly doubled (1.01 to 1.89 min⁻¹), enabling 25–50% faster completion times. Tao, 2022
Problem: Toxic Tailings Are a Growing Liabilitykeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Mining effluents contain residual reagents and heavy metals that are difficult to remove with standard settling ponds — creating regulatory risk and long-term environmental liability. Rodríguez & García-Calvo, 2008
What We Do: Air and ozone ultrafine bubbles enable advanced flotation and oxidative treatment, removing heavy metals and residual bitumen from mature fine tailings.
Sakr et al., 2022 Nazari et al., 2022
Problem: Wet Concentrates Are Costing You in Transportkeyboard_arrow_down
The Problem: Fine particle suspensions filter slowly, leaving high moisture in your final concentrate — increasing transport costs and lowering product value. Xiong & Peng, 2015
What We Do: Ultrafine bubbles improve the filter cake structure through aggregation, significantly reducing filtration time and producing drier concentrates. Li & Bu, 2024