Unit Operations in

Mineral Processing
Prof. Rodrigo Serna and Dr. Robert Hartmann
Spring 2019
Aalto University
Unit operations in a Cu processing
plant

1. Comminution
From mine

2
A. Lossin “Copper” in Ullman’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (2001)
 Unit operations in a Cu processing
plant

From mine

2. Screening/Classification
3
 Unit operations in a Cu processing
plant

From mine

Grinding circuits
are a combination
of comminution
and sizing

2. Screening/Classification
4
 Unit operations in a Cu processing
plant
Degree of liberation A:

• The degree of liberation expresses the share of mass or volume of a component, which
is free or as a compound included in a sufficient amount of material, i.e. how much of
the targeted mineral/component is liberated (free) or still grown together with other
compounds

𝑚𝑚𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑚𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙
𝐴𝐴 = ∗ 100% = ∗ 100%
𝑚𝑚𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑚𝑚𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 + 𝑚𝑚𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔

A complete liberation of the desired mineral is seldom achieved, even if the ore is ground
down to the grain size of the desired mineral particles (see lectures last week)
Screening
Characteristics of screening

• Separation of particles based on their size

•Industrial screening is extensively used for sizes between 300 mm and 40 µm, but
efficiency decreases with fineness
• Various objectives
-Sizing or Classifying – separation by size for preparing feed for a unit process
-Scalping – remove of coarsest fractions from feed material -> re-grind
-Grading – prepare products within specified size ranges
-Desliming or de-dustung – remove fine material
-Trash removal – usually coarse wood fibres

Feed

Overflow

Underflow

6
 Screening
Type of screens
• Grizzly
- Fixed bars
- Rotating rolls
• Sieve bends
• Vibrating
- Inclined screens
- Horizontal
- Resonance
- Multiple inclinations
(Banana)
- High frequency
• Shaking

7
Screening

Other types
• Revolving screens
- Trommel
- Centrifugal

• Rotary sifters
- Reciprocating
- Gyrating

8
Screening

Water or no water?
• The purpose of using spray water is to wash smaller particles from
larger ones to improve separation effectiveness, reduce “sticking” fines
DRY WET
Spray water mainly to achieve Spray water crucial as
certain %solids in undersize transport mechanism of fine particles

Grizzly
Flat screens Fine screens
Scalping
following and sieve
screens in
primary mills bends
crushing
circuits

9
Screening

Screening surfaces
Standard choice Improved capacity

Improved accuracy Improved service life High % open area

Grizzlies

10
Screening
Mass balance: Ideal vs. Actual screens
Screen analysis of feed Analysis of ideal products
%Passing

%Passing
Cut Point

dp  dp 

Analysis of real products

%Passing

u
f
o

dp 

11
 Screening
Mass balance and screen effectiveness
• Screen efficiency formulae
Feed mass flow
General mass balance: Undersize mass flow mass flows in t/h

Oversize mass flow

Mass balance for material finer as the screen is:

Commonly, the fine product stream is the important one and efficiency is defined by the
recovery of finished product (material less than the cut-size) to the fine (underflow) stream, Eu:

f - mass of material finer than a defined cut-point (or cut-size)

o - mass of material finer than the apparatus size in the coarse product
u - mass of material finer than the apparatus size in the fine product 12
 Screening
Mass balance and screen effectiveness
• Screen efficiency formulae
In case the coarse product is of more interest, a definition of efficiency is recovery of oversize to
the overflow, Eo:

These formulae assess the efficiency of the screen under different conditions, however, give not
an absolute value of the efficiency, as no allowance is made for the difficulty of the separation,
i.e. the more particles have approx. the size of the meshes, the more difficult the separation

The efficiency definition here refer to the recovery of finished product to either stream, e.g. EU
is recovery of finished product to the underflow stream
BUT
It does not consider the “composition” of the material in each fraction
f - mass of material finer than a defined cut-point (or cut-size)
o - mass of material finer than the apparatus size in the coarse product
u - mass of material finer than the apparatus size in the coarse product 13
Screening
Separation efficiency
Here, efficiency is the recovery of target mineral minus recovery of non-target mineral

With respect to a screen, for the underflow we could consider the difference in recovery of
undersize to the underflow minus recovery of oversize to the underflow, and analogous
statement to the overflow

In practice, the presence of fines in the

overflow is a problem, because the
overflow material is usually re-ground and
the presence of fines increases the energy
consumption of the grinding and
complicates the further processing of the
material

14
Screening – standard separation function
The standard separation function shows, which mass fraction is separated for each differential
size interval into the coarse fraction (overflow)

𝑶𝑶(∆ζ𝒊𝒊 )
𝑻𝑻𝑶𝑶 (ζ) =
𝑭𝑭(∆ζ𝒊𝒊 )

Curve of coarse fraction O

Separation function Ti(ζ)

Imperfect discharge
Separation efficiency
ζ25
0,3 < κ < 0,6 satisfying
κ=
0,6 < κ < 0,8 good
0,8 < κ < 0,9 very good
ζ75
κ=1 ideal

Cut point

Separation characteristic ζ

15
 Screening
Factors affecting performance
• Particle size and ratio particle size- mesh size
• Feed rate (height of the particle bed moving over the sieve)
• Screen angle (effective mesh opening, dwell time)
• Particle shape
• Open area
• Vibration (amplitude and frequency)
• Moisture

16
 Screening
Factors affecting performance
• Capacity and effectiveness are opposing factors… to drive high
capacities, the effectiveness will be penalized
• The actual capacity of a screen is affected by the probability of a
particle to pass through the screen “p”
Particle diameter

Diameter of wire

- In turn, this is affected by: Screen opening size

• Fraction of the surface represented by openings (“fo”, or open area)

• Number of contacts of the particle at the screen surface (n), for example in a
vibrating screen (where p’ is the probability of particles staying on the screen)

17
Screening
Factors afecting performance Ratio of particle
Chance of
passage per
Number of
apertures
to aperture size
• The actual capacity of a screen is 1000 required in path
0,001 998 1
affected by the probability of a
0,01 980 2
particle to pass through the screen
0,1 810 2
- In turn, this is a function of
0,2 640 2
(cont’d):
0,3 490 2
• Ratio of particle size-to-mesh
opening size 0,4 360 3
0,5 250 4

- In reality other factors affecting 0,6 140 7

performance include: 0,7 82 12
• Interference of other particles 0,8 40 25
• Cohesion of particles 0,9 9,8 100
• Adhesion to the screen surface 0,95 2,0 500
• Direction of approach of particles 0,99 0,1 104
to the screen
0,999 0,001 106

18
Screening
Other correlations are required if the particle does not approach
the screen perpendicularly as assumed by Gaudin’s equation
• If the screen has an inclination, the effective area the particle will “see”
is affected
Nominal size of opening

Effective opening

• The sieve length must be long enough

to allow a settling of the fines to the
sieve opening
Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan,
Advance Publicationdoi:
10.1252/jcej.12we104

19
Screening
Bed depth Initial bed depth
Feed
• The thickness of the ore layer passing through the
screens depends on the flow rate
• Three distinct regions can be found along the screen
length Width of screen
- Segregation is desired, a phenomenon in which Travel rate
smaller particles migrate to the bottom of the along screen
bed and larger particles to the top Feed Bulk density
- As region II is the most efficient, it is desired to Pan
maintain it for as long as possible Screen
- It has been claimed that by varying the slope of
the angle in inclined screens, the area of the
screens can be reduced significantly
• General rules of thumb

Rate of flow through

- For material with bulk density of 1600 kg/m3, III II I
feed thickness should be less than 4 times the
size of aperture
- For materials with bulk density of 800 kg/m3,
feed thickness should be less than 2.5-3 times the
size of aperture
Screen length

20
Screen Types

1. Vibrating screens
• Dominant type of screen used for coarse
and fine screening applications (e.g.
sizing, grading, scalping, de-watering, wet
screening and washing)
• Most versatile, enables separations from
300mm down to 45 µm
• Usually manufactured as multiple deck
(i.e. feed enters from the top and each
consecutive sieve has smaller mesh sizes

4 deck vibrating screen

21
Screen Types

2. Grizzly screens
• Characterized by parallel steel bars or
rails set in a fixed distance and in line
with the flow of the ore
• Usually for very coarse material
• Gap between bars greater than 50 mm
and as large as 300 mm with feed top size
of 1 m
• The inclination is about 20°and capacities
exceed 5000 t/h
• Used to separate feed before primary and
secondary crushers

Vibrating grizzly screen

22
Screen Types

3. Horizontal, linear vibrating

screens
• Must vibrate with a linear or elliptical vibration
to move the feed over the surface
• The accuracy is better than for inclined screens
• But, have a lower capacity than inclined screens
• Used for sizing applications where screening
efficiency is critical

Horizontal screen

23
Screen Types

4. Banana or multi-slope screens

• Become popular for high-tonnage sizing
applications, where efficiency and capacity are
important
• Have variable slope of around 30-40°at the feed
end reducing down to 0-15° in increments of 3,5-5°
• Particles move faster within a thin particle bed over
the screen surface, which efficiently separation of fines
• At the end, the slope decreases to slow down
remaining material, enabling more efficient screening
of the near-size material
• Capacity is three to four times higher than vibrating
screens Banana screen

24
Screening Surfaces

• Many types of screening surfaces

available with different size and shape,
proportion of open area, material
properties of the screen surface, and
flexibility of the screen surface
• Usually made of steel, rubber, or
polyurethane

Modular screen panels

25
Bolt-in screen surface

• For particles bigger than 50 mm

• Consist of large sheets of punched,
laser-cut, or plasma cut steel plate
• Often coated with polyurethane or
rubber to reduce the wear
• Screen sheets are rigid and bolted to the
screen (see picture)
• Also used on drums
• Screen surfaces also available with
different shape and size of openings

Bolt-in screen surface

26
Bolt-in screen surface
• Tensioned screening surfaces
 Surfaces consist of cloths that are stretched
taut to ensure screening efficiency and prevent
premature failure, available as wire weaves,
polyurethane or rubber

• Woven-wire cloth
 Constructed from (stainless) steel, cheapest
screen surface, high open area and thus high
capacity

• Self-cleaning wire
 Constructed to minimize “blinding” (particles
blocking the openings), wires form a pattern
but individual wires are free to vibrate Self-cleaning wire meshes
preventing particles to stick, have higher cost
but longer life time at similar accuracies as
conventional woven wire mesh

27
Screening

Sizing
• Due to the various factors influencing screen operation, tests
performed with representative samples of the actual material are
recommended
• As a first approach, empirical correlation methods can be applied to
obtain an initial estimate
- These empirical methods use correction factors that can vary between
manufacturers

28
Screening
Feed mass flow rate
Area of Product of the
Sizing screening surface various correction factors

Unit capacity Bulk density of feed

K∑=K1×K2×K3×K4×K5×K6×K7×K8×K9×K10
• K1 = Open area factor: (% open area of screen)/100
• K2 = Half size factor to correct for the percentage of feed passing through an aperture half
the size of the screen aperture (Figure 9.26)
• K3 = Oversize factor to correct for the percentage of oversize in the feed (Figure 9.26)
• K4 = Screening efficiency factor (Figure 9.27)
• K5 = Deck factor to correct for the reduced effective length of lower decks (Table 9.8)
• K6 = Screen angle factor to correct for non-optimum screen inclination (Table 9.8)
• K7 = Wet screening factor (Table 9.8)
• K8 = Aperture shape factor (Table 9.8)
• K9 = Particle shape factor (Table 9.8)
• K10 = Tenacity of surface moisture condition (Table 9.8)
Screen should have length-to-width ratio of 1.5-2.0:1

29
Screening
Sizing

K3

K2

30
Screening
K4

Sizing

31
 Screening
K5 K6 K9
Sizing

K7

K10

K8

32
Sizing: Sieves
Example:

The following crusher circuit has a fresh feed of 200 ton/h dry ore. The screen has an opening of 13 mm and an
efficiency of 80%*. It is estimated that 20% of the fresh feed is finer than 13 mm. The crusher will operate with a
closed side setting of 10 mm. Based on the product size data provided by the manufacturer with this setting
(below).

Your task now is to determine the required area for the screen in the circuit. The unit capacity “Iu” of the used
sieve type is 10 t/(m2h).

* NOTE: The efficiency of the screen is defined as the fraction of particles fed to the screen with a size smaller
than the screen opening that are actually passing

Feed

Screen

Crusher

To Milling
Unit operations in
minerals
processing and
recycling
Week 2
Classification
• Separation based on settling velocity of particles
- A function of size, specific gravity and shape
- Particles with settling velocities less than the velocity of fluid will produce an
overflow; those with greater velocities produce the underflow or spigot product
• Hydrocyclones is a classifying operation extensively used in grinding circuits
- Use centrifugal force to accelerate the settling rate of particles
- Preferred over screening for high throughput of fine particles

Overflow
Settling velocity < V
Overflow

Fluid Feed
Velocity
(V)

Underflow
Settling velocity > V Underflow
35
Principles of Classification
• When a solid falls freely in vacuum, there is no resistance and the particle will
accelerate under the action of gravity independently of its size and density, i.e. a
brick would fall with the same speed as a feather
• In a viscous medium, such as air or water, there is a resistance to this
movement, which increases with increasing speed of the particle
• When equilibrium between gravitational and resistance force is reached, the
particle falls with its constant terminal velocity

vresist

vVacuum
vgrav

36
Principles of Classification
• The resistance, or drag force, depends on the velocity of the descent
• At low velocity, the layer of fluid in contact with the particle moves with it, while
the fluid at short distance is motionless → between these positions, a zone of
intense shear in the fluid all around the descending particle is formed
• Effectively, all the resistance of the motion origins from the shear forces (with the
viscosity of the fluid) and thus called viscous resistance

37
Principles of Classification
• At high velocities the main resistance is due to the displacement of fluid by the
body (turbulent resistance), with the viscous resistance being relatively small
• With increasing drag forces, the acceleration of the particles decreases and the
terminal velocity is reached relatively quickly

• Classification is the balance of acceleration (gravitational, centrifugal) and drag

forces acting upon a particle → resulting net force has different direction for fine and
coarse particles

• Forces acting on particle:

- Gravitational and electrostatic forces
- Inertial, centrifugal forces and Coriolis forces (in rotational systems)
- Drag forces
- Pressure gradient forces, buoyancy forces
- Particle-particle interaction forces

38
Sorting column
• In a sorting column, a fluid rises
with constant velocity → particles
are introduced and either sink or rise
according to their terminal velocity
• This results in the separation of the
particles in two products, an overflow
and underflow

39
Principles of Classification- free settling
• Free settling refers to sinking particles in a large volume, so that particle-particle
interactions are negligible (usually when solid weight is less than 15-wt%)
• A particle of diameter d and density ρS is falling under gravity in a viscous fluid
with ρF , so that 3 forces are acting: gravitational, buoyant and drag force

• When the particle falls with its terminal velocity, the acceleration is zero, and
hence:

• By replacing the mass by volume and density, we obtain:

m - mass of the particle

m` - mass of the displaced fluid
x – particle velocity 40
g – gravitational constant
Principles of Classification- free settling
Laminar flow “Stokes law”
• Drag forces around a spherical
particle is due to viscous resistance
With η the fluid viscosity and ν the
terminal velocity
• Inserting D, we get:
Turbulent flow “Newtons law”
• Newton assumed that the drag
force was entirely due to turbulent
resistance and deduced:
• After substitution, we obtain:

• Solving the terminal velocity:

The range in which the Stoke´s or Newtons´s law is valid is determined by the Reynolds
numer, i.e. for Reynolds number below 1 the Stoke´s law is applicable (laminar flow), while
for high Reynolds number > 1000 the Newton´s law should be used

41
Principles of Classification
There is an intermediate range of Reynolds numbers, which corresponds to the
range in which most wet classifications take part and neither law fits
→ a number of empirical equations are derived to estimate the terminal velocity

Simplified Stoke´s law Simplified Newton´s law

With k1 and k2 are constants

42
Principles of Classification
For the special case of a rigid and smooth spherical particle, the drag forces can be
derived as a function of the Reynolds number introducing the drag coefficient

The general form of the flow drag forces is:

In the range of Stoke´s law (Re<0.5): leading to

0.44 𝜋𝜋 𝑑𝑑2 𝜌𝜌𝐹𝐹 𝑢𝑢𝑟𝑟2

In the range of Newton (103<Re<105): leading to 𝐹𝐹𝑊𝑊 = 8

With (= drag force to the viscous force)

43
Principles of Classification
For the special case of a rigid and smooth spherical particle, the drag forces can be
derived as a function of the Reynolds number introducing the drag coefficient

1 Stoke´s region
2 Approximation formula
3 Newton´s region

44
Types of Classifiers
• The most important categorization is based on the forces acting, either
gravitational or centrifugal
• In mineral processing, centrifugal classifiers are used due to their high efficiency
at low particle sizes (<70 µm)
• Gravitational classifiers are very inefficient for the separation of particles
smaller 100 µm

45
The hydrocyclone
The hydrocyclone is a continuously
operating classifier that uses centrifugal
forces to accelerate the settling rate of
particles.

It is one of the most important devices

in mineral processing due to the extreme
efficient separation of fines

Hydrocyclones are available in a wide

range of sizes, varying from 2.5 m in
diameter down to 10 mm, corresponding
to a cut-size of 300 µm down to 1.5 µm
with feed pressures varying from 20 to
200 kPa

46
The hydrocyclone- basic design and operation
• A hydrocyclone consists of a conically
shaped vessel, open at its apex, joined
to a cylindrical section, which has a
tangential inlet
• The top of the cylindrical section is
closed with a plate through which
passes an axially mounted overflow
pipe, which is extended into the body
of the cyclone by a short, removable
section (vortex finder)
• The vortex finder forces the feed to
travel downward, which prevents
short-circuiting of the feed to the
overflow

47
The hydrocyclone- basic design and operation
• The feed is introduced under
pressure through the tangential
entry, introducing the a swirling
motion to the pulp
• A vortex is formed in the cyclone with
a low pressure zone along the vertical
axis, where an air core develops
• The air core is connected to the
atmosphere through the apex
opening

48
The hydrocyclone- basic design and operation
• Particles within a cyclone are subjected to
an outward acting centrifugal force and an
inwardly acting drag force
• The centrifugal force develops an
acceleration the settling rate, separating
particles according to their size, specific
gravity (density) and shape
• Fast settling particles move to the wall of
the cyclone and migrate down to the apex
opening
• The slow settling particles move toward the
zone of low pressure along the axes and are
carried upward through the vortex finder
to the overflow

49
The hydrocyclone- basic design and operation
• The existence of an outer region with
downward flow and an inner region with
upward flow implies a position at which no
vertical velocity exists, called envelope of zero
vertical velocity, throughout the greater part
of the cyclone body
• Particles lying in the envelope of zero velocity
have equal chances to move to either the
over- or underflow → represents the
cut-point described later

50
Classification - Hydrocyclone operation

A view from the inside of the air core

Slurry in vortex

Flow to apex

51
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Geometry of a hydrocyclone Overflow Elbow

• No moving parts
• Feed tangential to the cylindrical Vortex Finder
section
Feed chamber
Dimension examples (but not the
Barrel
only ones!!!): Bradley design
• Inner diam. of cyclone = Dc
• Feed inlet (Di): Di/Dc = 0,133 Cone
• Vortex finder (DO): DO/Dc = 0,2
• Cone angle: θ = 9°
• Length of cyclone: L/Dc = 6,85
Apex
• Length of vortex finder: l/Dc = 0,33

52
Classification - Hydrocyclones
Tangential and axial velocity profiles
• There is in addition, a radial velocity profile of a comparatively much
lower magnitude

53
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Factors affecting performance

• Slurry solids content
- It is typically easier/cheaper to influence the performance of hydrocyclones by
changing feed solids content as opposed to mechanical parts (i.e., apex and vortex
finder)
- Good efficiency is obtained with 10-15% solids, and at more than 30% the
hydrocyclones offer low efficiency
• Shape, size and density of solid particles
• Water distribution
• Pressure drop
- a good indication of performance, closing or opening cyclones is a way to change its
operation
• The recirculating load is also an indication of the separation being achieved
- When a hydrocyclone operates in closed circuit with a ball mill, a recirculating load
of 250 % is desired.
- Recirculating Load=Dry Rate UF/Dry Rate OF *100

54
 Classification - Hydrocyclone operation
Beware of roping and spraying

When the density of the underflow is too high (typically

due to high solids content)‘roping’ will occur Spraying usually occurs when the feed is diluted
in excess
Roping is not desired since the ‘vortex’ disappears and
the cyclone operates as a “splitter” instead of a classifier.

55
Classification - Hydrocyclones
Hydrocyclone efficiency
• Efficiency can be simply
defined as:

• But since the hydrocyclone is

also splitting the fluid flow,
this has to be considered,
defining Rf as:

• With it, a reduced efficiency

M: mass flow rate of solids in the feed
can be calculated as: Mc: mass flow rate of underflow solids
Mf: mass flow rate of overflow solids
F(x): cumulative percentage oversize of feed solids
Fc(x): cumulative percentage oversize of underflow solids
Ff(x): cumulative percentage oversize of overflow solids
Q: volumetric flow rate of feed suspension
U: volumetric flow rate of underflow suspension 56
O: volumetric flow rate of overflow suspension
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Hydrocyclone efficiency
• And for a particular size range, an
analogous reduced grade* efficiency
- *NOTE: in this context, “grade” refers to
the separation of particles, not the
concentration of valuables, ”grade
efficiency is also called ”partition value”

x50 (sometimes also called d50) is the cut point:

The particle size at which 50% of particles in the feed
report to the underflow

57
Classification - Hydrocyclones
Several authors have proposed correlations (mainly empirical, but not always), trying to
predict the cut-point size based on the dimensions of the hydrocyclone and flow rate
parameters:
Dahlstrom (where C is an experimentally determined constant):

Yoshioka and Hotta (the constant 0,2 was obtained empirically)

De Gelder (k is a constant which is a function of Di, Do and Dc)

…and some more

58
 Classification - Hydrocyclones

(…continued)
Lynch and Rao (K is a function of material and hydrocyclone, e.g., 2 for silica, 2.5 for
copper ore)

Bradley (a and n are empirical constants depending on cyclone design)

Rietema (Cy50 is a dimensionless “characteristic cyclone number”, determined

experimentally)

…and there are some more (see Will´s “Mineral Processing Technology”)

59
 Classification - Hydrocyclones
Hydrocyclone efficiency
• Analogous to screening, hydrocyclones
use an ideal d50 size as nominal cut point

Feed appearing in underflow (%)

100
• The “sharpness index” refers to how far
from the ideal performance we are
operating, for example:
50

Ideal
• Some correlations have been proposed to
0
produce a “corrected” d50 to account for d50
the size fraction reporting to the Size (microns)

underflow due to classification

60
Cyclone efficiency- Partition curve
• The efficiency of a classifier is (mostly)
represented with the help of a partition
curve
• It states the weight fraction of each
particle size, which is accumulated in the
underflow
• The cut-point (d50) is the size for which
the chance is 50% to end up in either
over- or underflow
• In reality, some of the feed material
moves as short-circuit directly to the
underflow without any separation, and
thus a corrected partition curve is
sometimes presented

61
Operation parameters affecting performance
Cut size:
 Increase with cyclone diameter
 Increase with solid concentration in feed
 Increases with viscosity
 Decrease with flowrate
 Increase with small apex or large vortex
finder
Classification efficiency:
 Increases with correct cyclone size
selection
 Decrease with feed solid concentration
 Decreases with viscosity
 Increases by limiting water to underflow
Flow split of water to underflow:
 Increases with larger apex or
smaller vortex finder
 Decrease with flowrate
 Increases with solid concentration
in feed and/or viscosity
Flowrate:
 Increases with pressure
 Increases with cyclone diameter
 Decreases with solid
concentration in feed and / or
viscosity (at const. pressure)

Due to many dependencies, the parameters of the cyclone should be as constant as possible!

62
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Sizing using data from manufacturer (e.g. Metso Corporation)

• Define cut point from passing requirements in overflow
- Example: The overflow requires to be 90% smaller than 100 microns, the nominal
cut point (d50) is 100x0.79 = 79 microns

%passing in overflow Factor

99 0,49
95 0,65
90 0,79
80 1,06
70 1,36
60 1,77
50 2,34

63
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Sizing using data from manufacturer (e.g. Metso Corporation)

• Select hydrocyclone diameter

64
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Sizing using data from manufacturer (e.g. Metso Corporation)

• Select quantity of hydrocyclones

65
Classification - Hydrocyclones

Due to the high throughputs required to be handled,

hydrocyclones are operated in banks (also known as “spiders”)

66
Classification - Hydrocyclones

67
Gravitational Classifiers (GC)
• GC are best suited for coarser
classification, or as dewatering or
washing equipment
• Simple operation and low energy
requirements
• Capital outlay comparably high to
cyclones
• Two groups of GC: sedimentation and
hydraulic or counter-flow classification

68
Sedimentation Classifiers
• Simplest form of classifiers, which basically separate
solids from liquids
• Also as de-watering unit
• Not suitable for fine classification
• Used for de-sliming coarse sand products in
aggregate industry
• Pulp is fed into tank as a distributed stream, valve S
initially closed
• When the tank is full, overflow of water and slimes
begins
• A bed of settles coarse material until it reaches a
certain level
• Valve is opened and coarse discharged
• Classification takes part horizontally in zone D
• Challenge is the disposition rate of coarse

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Mechanical Sedimentation Classifiers
• Classifiers in which material with lower
settling velocity carried away through a liquid
overflow
• Material with high settling velocity is disposed
on the bottom and mechanically removed
• Used in closed-circuit grinding operations and
in ore-washing plants for sizing
• Pulp is introduced into an inclined through
and coarse particles quickly reach the bottom
• Above is a quick sand zone in which settling is
hindered (depth and size depends on feed)
• Above, free settling material, which partly
moves over the overflow → fines collection
• Solid concentration often too low and de-watering
required before further processing

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Mechanical Sedimentation Classifiers
• Settled sands are moved by mechanical rake
or helical screw
• Conveying mechanism serves to keep fines in
the suspension by gentle agitation
• When sands leave the pool, they are slowly
turned over by the raking action, or washed
with spray liquid to remove the fines from the
coarse and so improve the efficiency

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Mechanical Sedimentation Classifiers
• The size at which separation is made depends
on the feed rate (the higher, the bigger the
particle sizes collected in the overflow), speed
of rakes or spiral (the finer the product in the
overflow, the more slowly the agitation), the
height of the overflow weir (the higher the
weir the more volume in the pool, the lower
the pulp density in the overflow and the
smaller the size in the overflow)
• Most important is the solid content in the feed
for the operation of sedimentation classifiers,
e.g. from the grinder, a concentration of 65%
is provided, but classifiers work at max. 50%,
however min at 10% (critical dilution, increase
of coarse in the overflow)

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Hydraulic Classifiers (HC)
• Characterized by the use of additional water to that of the feed pulp, and its
direction is in opposite direction to the settling movement of particles
• Usually as a series of sorting columns
• In the first column, the rising velocity of the water is the highest and reduced
consecutively with each following column
• The underflow passes a spigot and collect below the HC
• The finest fraction overflows the final sorting column
• The size of each successive vessel increases to reduce surface velocity steadily

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Hydraulic Classifiers (HC)
• Free-settling classifiers barely used because of low efficiency, although high
capacities
• Hindered-settling HC´s used for sorting the feed to certain gravity concentration
processes so that the size effect can be suppressed and the density effect enhanced

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 Experience without theory is blind,
but theory without experience is mere intellectual play
-Immanuel Kant, philosopher

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