Lecture11:Materialbalanceinmineralprocessing

Contents:

Preamble
Materialsbalance
Waterbalance(dilutionratio)
Illustration
Conclusion
References
Keywords:Materialbalance,ballmill,hydrocyclone,flotation.

Preamble

Animportantaspectofanymineralprocessingstudyisananalysisofhowmaterialisdistributed
wheneverstreamssplitandcombine.Thisknowledgeisnecessarywhenaflowsheetisbeingdesigned
andisalsoessentialwhenmakingstudiesofoperatingplants.

Inthislecturebasicsofmaterialbalanceinmineralprocessingisdiscussed.

Materialbalance

Itisbasedontheprincipleofconservationofmatter.Ingeneral

Inputoutput=accumulation(1)

Inacontinuoussystematsteadystate,thereisnoaccumulationandhence

Input=output

Inmineralprocessingoperations,singleinputoffeed(ore)producesaconcentratecontainingmostof
thevaluableandthetailingcontaininggangueminerals.Thus

Tonsoffeed MF Tonsofconcentrate MC +andtonsoftailing MT (2)

MF MC MT (3)

Letfisfractionofmetalinfeed,candtarefractionofmetalinconcentrateandtailingrespectively,then

f MF cMC t M (4)

By3and4wecanobtain

M MF
(5)
M MC

MC
Plantrecovery(R)is 100(6)
MF
By5and6weget

R 100(7)

Inlectureonmeasurementsofquantitieswederivedtherelationshipbetweenpercentsolids % x
andpulpdensities,whenwaterisusedasamediumtomakethepulp,(pulpandslurryaresynonyms).

%x (8)

density ofsolidand isdensityofslurry

Massflowrateofdrysolidsinpulp(slurry)

F
M (9)

F volumetric flow rate m hr andM mass flow rate in kg/hr

F %
M kg/hr(10)

Waterbalance(Dilutionratio)

Waterisusedinmineralprocessing

a. Totransportsolidsinthecircuit
b. Toactasamediumforseparation

Ballmillsuse~35%waterformillingandinthedischargewaterisfurtheraddedforseparationinsolids
byweight.

Mostflotationoperationsareperformedinbetween25 40%solidsbyweight.

Somegravityconcentrationdevicesoperatemostefficientlyonslurrycontaining55 70%solids.

Roughly20m minofwaterisrequiredforaplanttreating10000tonsofore.

Twoproductformulaisofgreatuseinassessingwaterbalances.Intwoproductformula;feedis
dividedintwoproducts,namelyconcentrateandtailing.

Considerahydrocyclonefedwithaslurrycontainingf %solidsbyweightandproducingtwoproducts:

Underflowcontainingu%solidsbywt.andanoverflowcontainingv%solidsbyweight.

Considerweightofsolids/unitoftimeinfeed,underflowandoverflowarcMF , MU ,andMV respectively,

atequilibriumconditionsofoperation

MF MU MV (11)
 %
Dilutionratioisdefinedas
%

Dilutionratiooffeed f

Dilutionratioofunderflow u (12)

Dilutionratioofoverflow v

Waterbalanceonthecyclone:weightofwaterenteringthecyclonemustequaltheweightleavingin
twoproductsoutput

MF f MU u M v (13)

By11and13weget

MU
(14)
MF

If%solidsareunknown,twoproductbalancecanbeperformedbyusingpulpdensitiesslurrydensities.

Abalanceofslurryweights
MF MU M
(15)
% % %V

Byequation8inthat% x %solidsand15wegetaftersimplification
MF MU M
(16)
V

Onsimplifyingfurtherweget.

MU
(17)
MF

Inequation17, isdensityofslurryofunderflowand isdensityofslurryofoverflow.

Illustration

Considerseparationoffeedintounderflowandoverflowbyahydrocyclone.Feedis1000 tons/hrand
theunderflowis70%ofthefeed.Determinethecirculatingloadratio.

Inthehydrocycloneunderflowisrecirculated

M
Recirculatingloadratio

Materialbalancegivesmassofunderflow=700tonsandthatofoverflowis300tons.Everytime300
tonsisthefreshfeed.
Recirculatingloadratio 2.33.

Ifthefeedstreamslurrycontains35%solidsbyvolumeand40%ofthewaterisrecycled,calculate
concentrationofsolidsinhydrocycloneproducts.Densityofsolid 3.215 tons/m .

Hydrocycloneproducts:underflowandoverflow

Massbalancegives700tonsunderflowand300tonsoverflow

Volumeofsolidinfeed=volumeofsolidinunderflow+volumeofsolidinoverflow

. . .

311m 217.7m 93.3m

Volumeofwaterinfeed 311 578m .

Volumeofwaterinunderflow 0.4 578 231m

.
Solidsconcentrationinunderflow 48.5%
.

Volumeofwaterinoverflow 578 231 347m .

.
Solidsconcentrationinoverflow 100 21.2%
.

Conclusion

Inthislecturematerialbalanceinmineralprocessingisdiscussedthroughsomeproblems.Thereader
shouldalsogothroughthereferencesforthedetails.

References:

1. KellyandSpotiswood:introductiontomineralprocessing
2. Gaudin:Elementsoforedressing.