Accuracy of separation parameters resulting from errors of chemical analysis, experimental results and data approximation

Accuracy of determination of different separation parameters and selectivity indicators depends on the error of chemical analysis of feed and separation products as well as experimental and approximation errors. In this paper different selectivity parameters were considered which formulae was based on the content of useful component in the feed, concentrate and tailing. It was shown that the impact of chemical analysis on the selectivity parameters was small and the error determined by means of partial derivative approach for a copper ore upgraded by flotation was negligible. Also experimental errors were found to be insignificant. The largest errors occurred for approximation of the upgrading data with inadequately selected selectivity indicators.