Tishk International University

Engineering Faculty
Petroleum & Mining Eng. Department
MINERAL PROCESSING ENGINEERING PTR-423
Spring Semester 2021/2022

Lecture 2
 

Professor, Dr. Hamed M. Jassim

:Degree of Liberation

This term refers to the percentage of concentrate which is

present as free particles in the ore relative to the total
.contents of the ore
There are different possibilities of the degree of liberation,
:as follows
High degree of liberation: If weak boundaries are present
between the particles of the concentrate and tailing. Such
.type of ores are liberated by Primary Crushing only
Middle Degree of Liberation: If the broken particles consist
of interlocking concentrate and tailing particles which is
referred to as Middlings in the products. This needs
additional liberation using Secondary or additional
.Crushing
Low degree of liberation: If the interlocking or bond •
between the concentrate and tailing particles is very
strong.
For the liberation of such ores we need Grinding or
.even Over-Grinding of the ore
The Physical Separation of the different components of the ore into -2
.Concentrates, Middlings and Tailings
Mineral processing reduces the volumes and weights of the -3
products which are to be transported to the plants of extractive
.metallurgy and smelters. This reduces the transport costs
Raising the Grade (or Assay Value) of the mineral to make its -4
.exploitation feasible
To separate the several valuable minerals in complex ores from -5
.each other
To remove the materials which may obstruct the following -6
.separation processes
It is possible to liberate the valuable minerals from the tailings by
using Comminution (or Size Reduction) processes. This includes the
stages of Crushing and Grinding, whereby the rocks are reduced in
size to a particle size which is suitable for the separation process. The
product will be in the form of a mixture of relatively pure particles of
.concentrate and tailings
The insufficient crushing of the ore will not give good
liberation of the concentrate particles, but overgrinding
the ore will result in the use of too much power and makes
.the optimum separation more difficult
Some ores are comminuted (or reduced in size) a little
larger than the required liberation size before the primary
.concentration or separation processes
After finishing the liberation processes, the concentration
.or separation processes will start
The separation processes are enabled by making use of
some specific differences in the physical, chemical or
surface properties of the concentrate and tailings
.components
:Types of Mineral Processing ( Separation) Methods
Mineral processing is concerned, mainly, with the physical
methods of processing or separation. Amongst these are the
:following
The separation depending on the optical or radioactive -1
.properties which is normally called ( Hand Sorting)
The separation depending on the differences in the -2
specific gravity. This makes use of the differential movement
of the different mineral particles under the mass effect in
.hydraulic currents usually
The separation depending on the differences in the -3
surface properties of minerals, such as (Froth Flotation)
.method
The separation according to the magnetic properties of -4
the different particles where some low intensity magnetic
separators are used to separate or concentrate the
ferromagnetic minerals such as magnetite (Fe3O4), whereas
some high intensity magnetic separators are used to
separate or concentrate the paramagnetic minerals such as
.Wolframite [(Fe, Mn)Wo4] and Heamatite (Fe2O3)

The separation according to the differences in electrical -5

conductivity properties, whereby the (High Tension
Electrostatic Separation) is used to separate the conductive
from the nonconductive minerals. We can illustrate the
concentration and processing operations by using the flow
.sheets
:Flow Sheets
A flow sheet is a diagram which shows the sequence of
steps of mineral processing operations whereby all
information concerning some brief descriptions of
mineral processing steps are put on the flow sheet. It is
also usual to use some technical terms and specialized
short-forms which help better understanding the
.processing or concentration system
There are different types of flow sheets which fall in two
-:main classes
:Simple Block Flow Sheets -1
These flow sheets are usually simple and consisting of
blocks, each block assembles these operations
 :Line Flow Sheets -2
These flow sheets show the sequence of steps of
processing and concentration operations through lines
with arrows which indicate the directions and
sequence of preparation and concentration
operations. These flow sheets may consist of simple
lines without too much details or symbols. The
:following is an example
:The symbols refer to
grains or particles whose sizes exceed the size = ) + (
.of screen openings and referred to as Oversize
grains or particles whose sizes are less than the = ) - (
.size of screen openings and referred to as Undersize
Some symbols which refer to specific operations
may be used in in these flow sheets. The
addition of some chemical agents or reagents
may be marked on these flow sheets. These are
:illustrated in the following two examples