Mineral Processing
Mineral Processing
Mineral Processing
Mineral Processing is the process where raw mined materials are refined to become
useful components for industry. Image 1 is a picture of some of the many minerals that are
mined and processed. Mineral Processing is involved in production of three main products:
aggregates (stone and rock), minerals (gold, lead, and iron), and coal. Mineral Processing is also
used in the recycling industry.
There are 4 main steps in Mineral Processing:
1. Characterization,
2. Liberation,
3. Separation,
4. Disposition.
Figure 1
Characterization
Characterization is the first step of mineral processing. It is when the material being
processed is identified and its chemical/physical properties are noted. Characterization answers
two basic questions: What am I processing? and What property can I use to help process the
material?
In the Characterization step, Sampling is often performed. Sampling answers the first
question; what am I processing? There are a variety of sampling techniques but each involves
taking a representative sample which is analyzed to identify the components of the feed material.
When the feed material is identified, important chemical/physical properties of the material can
be identified. The most important property is size. Other important properties are density,
magnetic susceptibility, and electrical conductivity.
Liberation
Liberation is the 2nd step in the process where dissimilar elements in the feed material are
freed from one another. This is often accomplished by size reduction.
There are two classes of size reduction machines: Crushers and Grinders. Crushers deal
with large particles usually particles greater than 1 mm diameter while grinders deal with
particles smaller than 1mm diameter.
There are many types of crushers but all either crush by Compression or Impact.
Particles are compressed or impacted until they break into smaller pieces. Typical crushers have
a reduction ratio of 40/6. This means that if you put a 40 mm diameter particle in them they will
give you a range of particles about 6 mm in diameter. Figure 2 is an image of a particular type of
crusher called a Jaw Crusher. It uses compression to crush the material.
Figure 2
The mineral processing industry has created a Work Index Value to help understand the
hardness of the feed material. This index assigns values to minerals based on their difficulty to
grind. Therefore a high work index means the mineral is hard to grind. The coal industry also
assigns values based on the coal’s hardness. Theses values are called the Hardgrove
Grindability. However, in the Hardgrove Grindability Index higher values signify softer, easily
ground coal.
Separation
Separation is most important step of mineral processing. It is when the different
components of the feed material are separated from each other. Separation uses chemical and
physical properties to achieve this. Particles are most often separated by size, density, magnetic
susceptibility, and electrical conductivity. Aggregate mineral processing usually skips this step
and continues directly to disposition.
Size separation is primarily done by Screening. Figure 4 is an image of a series of
different Mesh Size screens. Screening is often done in series, so multiple streams of different
size ranges can be created. There are two systems of mesh sizing: Tyler and U.S. series. In both
systems, larger mesh sizes correspond to smaller hole sizes.
Tyler Series- Larger Mesh Sizes mean smaller holes in the screen.
U.S. Series- Larger Mesh Sizes mean smaller holes in the screen.
Figure 4
Hydroclones are used extensively with feed particles smaller than 100 micrometer
diameter. Dense media separation is used with larger particles. Hydrocyclones are used with
small particles because small particles need the centrifugal force to speed separation.
Dense Media Separation is used for particles 100 micrometers diameter and greater.
Hydrocyclones are for particles 100 micrometers diameter and smaller.