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The phenomenon of flocculation in liquid suspensions has a variety of applications, including mineral processing, treatment of industrial effluents, and municipal sewage sludge purification. Obtaining metals from ores would not be possible without the slurry processing route. Flocculants play here a double role: limiting environmental contamination and also slowing down depletion of raw materials — including potable, industrial and agricultural water. Development of better flocculants requires improved understanding of the mechanism of their action. We propose a model of flocculation based on the assumption that effective flocculants pervade large volumes of liquids in the suspensions. Since many flocculants are polymers, good flocculants according to the model should have large radii of gyration R_G. We therefore assume a connection between R_G and settling velocities y of particles out of suspension. Four …