MINERAL PROCESSING

Part 2
 Mineral Processing
CONCENTRATION METHODS

1. SORTING : Separation dependent on optical and

radioactive properties. Includes hand selection
of high grade ores.
– This is practiced in relatively few instances, but
when conditions are suitable, it may prove to be a
very economical process.
– To be suitable for hand picking, the coarse ore
must show marked segregation into high-grade
pieces and/or large pieces of barren waste.
 Hand Picking/Sorting
• The ore from the coarse crusher is passed over
a slowly moving conveyor belt or table between
rows of pickers who pick off either pieces that
are high-grade ore or pieces that are obviously
barren waste.
• The ore is usually sprayed with water to wash
off dust and make the recognition of minerals
easier.
 Gravity Concentration
1. GRAVITY CONCENTRATION AND HEAVY
MEDIA SEPARATION.
–These methods take advantage of the difference
in specific gravities of the mineral components
in the ore.
–Gravity concentration utilizes the different
movement of minerals due to mass effects,
usually in hydraulic currents.

• Gravity concentration methods separate

minerals of different specific gravity by their
relative movement in response to gravity and
one or more other forces, the latter often being
the resistance to motion offered by a viscous
fluid, such as water or air.
 Gravity Concentration
• It is essential for effective separation that a
marked density difference exists between
mineral and gangue.
• The motion of the particle in a fluid is dependent
not only on its specific gravity, but also on its
size: large particles will be affected more than
smaller ones.
• The efficiency of gravity processes therefore
increases with particle size, and the particles
should be sufficiently coarse to move in
accordance with Newton’s Law.
 Gravity Concentration
• Particles which are so small that their movement
is dominated mainly by surface friction respond
relatively poorly to commercial high-capacity
gravity methods.
• In practice, close size control of feeds to gravity
processes is required in order to reduce the size
effect and make the relative motion of the
particle’s specific gravity dependent.
(DH – 1)
Gravity concentration criterion =
(DL – 1)

> 2.5
 Gravity Concentration
• Panning
• Dense Media Separation (DMS)
process
– Solution of salts
– Organic heavy liquids
– Autogenous media provided by ore pulp
– Suspension of solids in water
 Gravity Concentration
• Jigging Process
– initial acceleration, hindered settling, consolidation
trickling

start differential hindered consolidation

initial settling trickling
acceleration

light particle heavy particle

 Gravity Concentration
Types of Jigs
• Jigging-through-the-screen
– The particles to be separated are smaller than the
jig screen. Heavy particles penetrate thru the
ragging (a layer of course heavy particles) and
screen to be drawn off as a concentrate in the
hutch
• Jigging-on-the-screen
– The particles are larger than the jig screen.
– Both concentrate (bottom layer) and the tailings
(upper layer) are drawn off on the screen
BASIC JIG CONSTRUCTION
feed

water
Tailings overflow
ragging

jigging action
water
hutch

Concentrate
discharge
spigot
 Gravity Concentration
• action in a flowing film

direction of flow
Water velocity
increases

Slower flow due to the

friction of the water water
absorbed by the
Inclined solid
surface
surface
• Sluice box
WILFLEY SHAKING TABLE
HUMPHREY SPIRALS
 Gravity Concentration

• Cross section of Humphrey spiral

 Froth Flotation
• It is based on the fact that wettability of the different
minerals upon treatment may be altered so that certain
mineral particles remain unwetted and adhere to air
bubbles. Through the use of relatively small amounts of
chemicals or oils, particle surfaces may be altered to a
hydrophobic or hydrophilic condition—that is, the surfaces
are either repelled or attracted by water.
• Thus, in a pulp of mineral particles and water through which
the air bubbles are passing, the hydrophobic particles attach
themselves to the bubbles and are carried to the upper
surface of the pulp, where they enter the froth; the
hydrophilic particles can then be removed. The hydrophilic
particles remain in the Pulp.
• It is possible not only to float various minerals from gangue
but also to separate certain valuable minerals from others
selectively. Many complex ore mixtures formerly of little
value have come to be among the principal sources of
certain metals by means of the flotation process.
FROTH FLOTATION

IMPELLER
 Froth Flotation
• Two types of flotation:
• direct flotation - froth product is the
concentrate
• reverse flotation - froth product is the
tailings
 Froth Flotation
• Flotation Reagents:
• collector - reagents used to provide a water-repellant
surface on the mineral to be floated so as to improve
adherence of the mineral to air bubble, ex. xantahtes
• frother – reagents used to produce froth of adequate
durability to permit the removal of mineral carrying bubbles
from the flotation machine, ex pine oil
• modifiers
– pH regulator – reagents used to control alkalinity, ex lime as
pH regulator
– dispersants – act to break agglomerated particles apart so
that single particles react with collectors and air bubbles
– activators – reagents used to assist or improve the selective
separation of minerals that do not respond to a simple
collector-froth combination, ex. copper sulfate
– depressants – reagents used to improve selective separation
of minerals by lowering the floatability of specific minerals. ex.
Cyanide, zinc sulfate
 Froth Flotation
Collectors molecules may be:
1. ionizing compounds – dissociates in water
2. non-ionizing compounds – insoluble in water

Ionizing collectors - complex molecules which are assymetric in

structure and are heteropolar consisting of non-polar
hydrocarbon group and polar group. The non-polar group
renders the surface hydrophobic and the polar group reacts
with water.

Ionizing collectors:
1. anionic - the non-polar group is an anion.
2. cationic – the non-polar group is a cation.
 Froth Flotation
Collectors render the minerals hydrophobic by covering its
surface with a thin film, a monomolecular layer. The
non-polar hydrocarbon group are oriented outward
forming a hydrophobic pseudo surface while the polar
ion or the solidophil group are attached with the mineral
surface via chemisorption or ionic bonding

non-polar ion

mineral
polar group
 Froth Flotation
Anionic Collectors
1. Oxyhydryl collectors - organic acids or
soaps
a. carboxylate
b. sulphates
c. sulphonates
2. Sulphydryl collectors
a. xanthates
b. dithiophosphates
 Froth Flotation
Frothers are also heteropolar compounds that renders the decrease
the surface tension of the solution such that they are preferentially
adsorb at the air-solution interface:

The general specifications of frothers

1. low concentrations should produce continuously a froth of
sufficient volume and toughness to act as a medium of
separation of the floated minerals from the ore pulp
2. the froth should break readily after being removed from the
flotation cell to allow concentrates to be flushed or pumped to
cleaning stage or to recovery by thickening-filtration
3. froth texture should allow for elimination of gangue particles,
especially in the case of slimes
4. cost and availability should be satisfactory for large-scale
5. low chemical activity and limited collecting tendency should be
exhibited; collective activity if shown should be selective for the
minerals to be floated.
6. sensitivity to pH change and dissolved salt content of flotation
pulp should be low.
 Magnetic Separation
• Magnetic separation is the most used and probably the
most efficient method of beneficiating iron ores, the principal
of mineral of which is the iron oxide known as the magnetite
(Fe3O4).
• The technique is based largely on the differing degrees of
attraction exerted on various minerals when influenced by
magnetic fields.
• It is applicable to the treatment of both coarse and fine
particles, either wet or dry. In concentrating magnetic iron
ore, low intensity wet magnetic separators are most
commonly used.
• When ores are conveyed through a magnetic field of the
proper strength, the magnetic portion is separated from the
non-magnetic potion.
• High-intensity magnetic separators have been developed for
the separation of weaker magnetic iron minerals, thus
permitting beneficiation of such minerals as hematite,
limonite, siderite, franklinite, ilmenite, and wolframite.
•
 Magnetic Separation
• Low intensity magnets are used to separate
magnetite from minerals with lower magnetic
properties

• High intensity magnets are used to separate

magnetic impurities from non-magnetic minerals like
silica and feldspar where iron imparts brown or
amber color to finished products like glass and
ceramics.

• Magnetic separators can be wet or dry.

• Industrial magnetic separators can be drum or belt

type.
 Magnetic Separation
• Schematic diagram of a dry drum
magnetic separator
 Electrostatic Separation
• This is a concentration method between minerals of
different electrical properties. It is based on the
phenomenon of attraction between unlike electrical
charges and repulsion between like charges.

• This process has proved quite successful in the

treatment of heavy beach sands from which the
valuable minerals ilmenite, rutile, or zircon may be
recovered. Its application to iron-ore beneficiation
has also been considered.

• Limitations: dry method only; low capacity due to

single layer of minerals must past through the
separator
Electrostatic Separation