The Australian Coal Industry served as a rigorous testing ground for the Jameson Cell in the 1980s culminating in the first full scale Jameson Cell coal installation at Newlands in 1990. The Jameson Cell is now the industry standard with over 100 coal cells installed by 2010 in Australia alone.

In a Coal Handling and Preparation Plants (CHPP) gravity separation techniques are used to separate coal from ash. At fine particle sizes (below 500 µm) gravity separation is inefficient and flotation is required. Early coal operations used conventional flotation technology however high throughputs and strict product ash specifications made these circuits complex and inefficient with inconsistent performance.

The Jameson Cell is now the industry standard with over 100 coal cells installed by 2010 in Australia alone. The fine bubble size, high intensity and froth washing ability offers major advantages over conventional cells for recovery of highly hydrophobic, fast floating coal fines. These advantages provide superior, more consistent flotation performance, lower ash concentrates and high recovery in a single stage of flotation. Coupled with high throughputs, small footprint, simple installation and high availability the Jameson Cell has set the standard for installations in the coal industry. The largest installation at Curragh (Australia) treats over 5 Mtpa of coal fines using only twelve cells. Jameson Cells are also installed in coal operations in Africa, North America, Asia and Europe. Their simple integration into modular plants has allowed the benefits of Jameson Cell Technology to be utilised in the recovery of coal fines from tailings dams.