Recover what your circuit leaves behind. Start with an ore test.
Send us a sample of your ore. KST Mining Canada, in Québec, runs a bench-scale flotation comparison and sends you a written result. Kairospace has no mining installations yet; the ore test is how we start.
(Ore- and circuit-specific · published research)
(Lab scale, narrow fine chalcopyrite cuts, not a plant feed · published research)
(Phosphate trials, k 1.01 → 1.89 min⁻¹ · published research)
What an ore test is
A bench-scale comparison, treated against untreated, on your own ore. It is run by KST Mining Canada (Québec), led by Steve Coulombe.
- You sendA representative ore sample, your current reagent scheme and the recovery you get today, and the particle size of the feed.
- You getA written comparison at bench scale, treated against untreated on the same ore: recovery by size fraction, collector and frother dosage, and flotation kinetics.
- Who runs itKST Mining Canada, in Québec, led by Steve Coulombe.
- What it settlesWhether ultrafine bubbles move recovery or reagent use on your ore, and whether clay in the ore works against you. It is a bench result, not plant performance.
- Sample, timeline, costSample size, timeline and cost are set out in the proposal that answers your request.
- After the testIf the comparison supports it, a scoped proposal for a pilot on your circuit; pilot fees can credit toward the full system, up to 100% on structured trials. If not, you keep the data.
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 revenue that does not come back.
Bubbles small enough to find the fines
Ultrafine bubbles attach directly to fine mineral surfaces and form aggregates that standard bubbles can lift. In published flotation research that raised recovery on fine size cuts, lowered collector and frother demand, and sped up kinetics. The record is ore-specific, so the first step is a test on your ore, not a proposal.
Oxygen is a reactant in the leach, and many barren solutions run short of it
Gold dissolves by the Elsner reaction, 4 Au + 8 CN⁻ + O₂ + 2 H₂O → 4 Au(CN)₂⁻ + 4 OH⁻, so oxygen is consumed alongside cyanide, and in published research the leach runs best near a cyanide-to-oxygen ratio of about 6:1 by mass. Many barren solutions carry less dissolved oxygen than that ratio asks for, which is one reason the same ore can leach slower on the pad than in the bottle roll.
The response is saturating, not proportional: past the point where oxygen stops limiting, more of it buys nothing. The heap-leach calculator is built on that curve; if your circuit already sits at the cyanide-to-oxygen optimum it returns zero and says oxygen is not your limit. It does not model flotation.
What buyers in mining ask before an ore test
Is this for flotation or for heap leaching?
Both, but they are two different unit operations, and the evidence for one does not carry to the other. In flotation, ultrafine bubbles attach to fine particles; in published flotation research that cut collector and frother demand by up to 50%, ore- and circuit-specific. In heap leaching, oxygen is an Elsner reactant, and the heap-leach calculator models a saturating response: if your circuit already sits at the cyanide-to-oxygen optimum, it returns no gain and says oxygen is not your limit.
Does Kairospace have mining installations?
No. Kairospace has no mining installations and no measurement of its own in this application, which is why the first step is a test on your ore, run by KST Mining Canada in Québec and led by Steve Coulombe.
How does it tie into our circuit?
The injector mounts inline on existing piping, so the tie-in is a pipe connection rather than a new cell. Where it goes in your circuit follows from what the ore test shows, and the proposal specifies it along with the power circuit (a dedicated GFCI-protected circuit, commonly about 220 V / 30 A) and the mounting area for the skid. Installation itself takes 1–3 days, with hours of interruption on the treated line, not days.
What happens after the test?
You get the written comparison either way. If it supports a pilot, the next step is a scoped proposal for a pilot on your circuit, and pilot fees can credit toward the full system, up to 100% on structured trials. How a pilot works. If it does not, you keep the data and stop there.
What published research reports
Figures are from published studies, not Kairospace measurements. Results depend on the ore and the circuit, which is what the ore test is for.