Mineral Processing/Beneficiatiation

Lecture 04
 Mineral Processing/Ore Dressing
• After mining the first step in the metallur-gical
process is mineral processing.
• This step prepares the ore for extraction of the
valuable mineral.
• It is a process of physically separating the grains of
valuable minerals from the waste minerals.
• This enrichment process considerably reduces the
volume of mineral that must be handled by the
extractive metallurgist.
 Mineral Processing
Industrial mineral treatment processes usually combine a number of unit
operations in order to:
 liberate, [The release (liberation) of the valuable minerals
from their waste gangue minerals] and
 concentrate [Separation of these values from the gangue]
and
 classify minerals using physical properties and processes.
• Mineral processing involves manipulating particle size by crushing and grinding the
ore. Combined with particle size classification unit operations, this area is often termed
comminution.
• Also of interest is the separation of mineral solids from water and
aqueous solutions by thickening, filtering and drying
 MP
• An intimate knowledge of the mineralogical
assembly (texture) of the ore is essential for
efficient mineral processing.

Galena (G) and sphalerite

relatively coarse grain size,
and compact morphology
of chromite (C) grains
makes liberation from
olivine (O) gangue fairly
easy
Chalcopyrite (C)
precipitated along fractures
in quartz. Liberation of
chalcopyrite is fairly
difficult due to "chain-like"
distribution.
(S) intergrown. Separate
"clean“ concentrates of
lead and zinc will be diffi-
cult to produce, and conta-
mination of concentrates
with other metal is likely
 Schematic Representation of liberation process
A A
A A A
A Unliberated material:
R
A A Grains of ore (A) in
A Rocky matrix (R)
A A
RA R
R

Liberation treatments R R
A A
R
A R
A
R
A
R A
A and R almost R R A
A A
liberated RA R A A R
AR

R Separation treatments

10/10/2021 A
Early Examples: Rocks are crushed mainly by impact

hand-pounding
Using the principle of
pounding with bats lever to crush ores

• To enrich an ore in its valuable minerals it was

necessary to crush it into small fragments then pick up
the mineral values and discard the valueless minerals.
Flowsheet for process utilizing two-stage separation
 SEPARATION OF MINERALS
• Panning of gold is probably the oldest way of separating
mineral particles by gravity
• Hand sorting was a common method to pick up the valuable
pieces of ore from the gangue.
• Flotation, magnetic and gravity separation are now the most
important mineral beneficiation methods.

Hand sorting
 Mineral Separation

Separation is possible when the components provide suitable features

for separation while the device provide fields (gravity and/or
electromagnetic), space, and splitting forces, as well as other elements
(time, etc.). Thus, separation is an interactive system consisting of
components, device and surroundings
 Separation/Concentration Operation: Few terms
• The grade, or assay, usually refers to the content of the marketable
end product in the material. Thus, in metallic ores, the % metal is often
quoted as grade.
• For very low-grade ores, (e.g gold), metal content may be expressed
as ppm.
• Some metals are sold in oxide form, and hence the grade may be
quoted in terms of the marketable oxide content, e.g. %WO 3, %U308,
etc.
• In non-metallic operations, grade usually refers to the mineral content,
e.g. %CaF2 in fluorite ores; diamond ores are usually graded in carats
per 100 tonnes (t), (1 carat is 0.2 g).
• Coal is graded according to its ash content.
• The recovery, in the case of the concentration of a
metallic ore, is the percentage of the total metal contained
in the ore that is recovered from the concentrate.
• A recovery of 90% means that 90% of the metal in the ore
is recovered in the concentrate and 10% is lost in the
tailings.
The recovery, when dealing with non-metallic ores, refers
to the percentage of the total mineral contained in the ore
that is recovered into the concentrate.
• The ratio of concentration is the ratio of the weight of
the feed (or heads) to the weight of the concentrates.
It is a measure of the efficiency of the concentration
process, and closely related to the grade or assay of
the concentrate; the value of the ratio of concentration
will generally increase with the grade of concentrate.
• Solid Split is inverse of ratio of concentration.
• The enrichment ratio is the ratio of the grade of the
concentrate to the grade of the feed, and again is
related to the efficiency of the process.
 • Inverse relationship between the recovery and grade
of concentrate in all concentrating processes.
• To attain a very high-grade concentrate, the tailings
assays are higher and the recovery is low.
If high recovery of metal is aimed for, there
will be more gangue in the concentrate and the
grade of concentrate and ratio of concentration
will both decrease.

Typical recovery-grade curve

• Concentrate grade and recovery, used simultaneously,
are the most widely accepted measures of assessing
metallurgical (not economic) performance.
• If both the grade and recovery are greater for one case
than the other, then the choice of process is simple, but
if the results of one test show a higher grade but a
lower recovery than the other, then the choice is no
longer obvious.
 Mass balance: two-product formula for
separation process
Input or feed stream
Weight = F
Assay = f

Separation

Concentrate Tailings
(valuable mineral product) (waste or gangue material)
Weight = C Weight = T
Assay = c Assay = t
• Ex1. The feed to a Zn flotation plant assays 3.93% Zn. The
concentrate produced assays 52.07% Zn and the tailings 0.49% Zn.
Calculate the solid split, ratio of concentration, enrichment ratio, and
Zn recovery.
Solution: The solid split = C/F = (f – t)/(c –t)
= (3.93 – 0.49)/(52.07 - 0.49) = 0.067 or 6.7%.

Ratio of concentration = F/C = 1/solid split = 1/0.067 = 15

Enrichment ratio = c/f = 52.07/3.93 = 13.25

Zn recovery=Cc/Ff = c(f – t)/f(c – t) = 52.07 (3.93 – 0.49)/3.93(52.07 -

0.49) = 0.884 or 88.4%
Sensitivity of R
• Ex2: The streams in the Zn flotation plant (Example 1) are also assayed
for their content in Cu. The laboratory reports the measured values in
Table. Calculate the recoveries of zinc and copper and provide the
expression of their variances as functions of the variances of Zn and Cu
assays on all 3 streams.
• Solution:

For Zn, R =
For Cu, R =
• Schulz have proposed the following definition:
Separation efficiency (S.E.)= Rm - Rg where
Rm = % recovery of the valuable metal,
Rg = % recovery of the gangue into the concentrate.
• Suppose the feed material, assaying f% metal, separates into a
concentrate assaying c% metal, and a tailing assaying t% metal, if the
metal content in the mineral is m then the value mineral fraction in
concentrate is c/m and thus the gangue fraction in the concentrate is g = 1
- (c/m)
• The recovery of gangue

• and thus the separation efficiency is:

 Metallurgical Balances:3-Product Formula
The method relies on equations and tables

F T
Equations
F = C1 + C2 + T
C1 C2
Ff1 = C1c11 + C2c21 + Tt1
Ff2 = C1c12 + C2c22 + Tt2
Where, F = feed tonnage rate or 100%, C1 and C2 = concentrate1 and 2 tonnage or weight%, T =
tailing tonnage or weight%, and f1, c11 , c21 , t1 = stream assay for element 1 (%, kg/t, ppm, etc.),
f2, c12 , c22 , t2 = stream assay for element 2 (%, kg/t, ppm, etc.)
Eliminating M(T) from the equations the value of M(C1) will be given by
Ex3
 Slurry
• A slurry is a suspension of solids in a liquid (water in
metallurgical industries). It is also referred to as pulp.
• The concentration of dry solids in a slurry, %S, is
expressed as,
Or
If ρSL, ρL and ρS the densities (kg/m3) of the slurry, liquid and
solids respectively, it follows that in a slurry of 100 kg, %S kg
solid and (100-%S) kg liquid and correspondingly (by
volume) in (100/ρSL) m3 slurry, (%S/ρS) m3 solid and (100-
%S)/ρL m3 liquid will be there.
• Volume fraction of solid in slurry = %SρSL/100ρSL
• Volume fraction of liquid in slurry =(100-%S)ρS/100ρL
so, %SρSL/100ρSL + (100-%S)ρS/100ρL = 1
or

• Mass flow rate of dry solid in slurry (M)

M = [Volumetric flow rate(F) . slurry density(ρSL). %S] / 100
= [F.ρS.(ρSL – ρL)]/[(ρS – ρL)]
• Ex 4: % Solids in slurry.
A slurry stream containing quartz is diverted into a 1 liter can. Time taken to fill the can
is 8 seconds. The density of the slurry and quartz is 1400 kg/m3 and 2600 kg/m3
respectively. Calculate (a) percent solids by weight and (b) mass flow rate quartz within
slurry. Ans:a)

b)

Mass flow rate of dry solid in slurry (M) = F. ρSL.%S]/100 = [F.ρS.(ρSL – ρL)]/[(ρS – ρL)]
Ex5

Solution
Slurry stream 1 has a flow rate of 5.0 m3/h and contains 40% solids. Therefore, from rearranged
above equation, density of the slurry, ρSL =

The mass flow rate of solids in slurry stream 1: M1 =

Slurry stream 2 has a flowrate of 3.4 m3/h and contains 55% solids. Using the same
equations as above, the pulp density of the stream 2 = 1579 kg/m 3. Therefore the mass
flow rate of solids in slurry stream 2 (M2) = 1.82 t/h. The tonnage of dry solids pumped is
thus M1 + M2 = 2.73 + 1.82 = 4.55 t/h
 Home work Problems
HW 1

HW 2
HW3

• Assuming that the tin is totally contained in the mineral

cassiterite (SnO2), which, when pure, contains 78.6%
tin, and since mineral recovery is 100 • C/F) x
concentrate grade/feed grade, for the high-grade
concentrate:
HW.4
HW 5
 HW 6

HW 7: Calculate the % solids content of the slurry pumped from the sump in
Example 5.
HW 8
Thank
 A Nice Example
• %Fe in Fe2O3 = 2x56x100/(2x56 + 3 x 16) = m = grade
where 100% is value mineral (hematite), i.e. no gangue

• c = wt of Fe/(wt of Fe2O3 + gangue)

• Fraction of gangue in concentrate = 1 – c/m

• Fraction of gangue in feed = 1 – f/m
• Rg = C(1 – c/m)/ F(1 – f/m)
• SE = Rm – Rg = Cc/Ff - C(1 – c/m)/ F(1 – f/m)