MINERAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

Lecturer : Sandoka J. Nyaronyo

Msc. ETM & Bsc. MPE
0717 132878/0765 447151
[email protected]
Course Objectives, Mode of Delivery &
Assessment

 Course Objectives
To provide students with an understanding of the fundamental
ore preparation methods applicable in the mining industry.
 Course Mode of Delivery
2 hrs lecture per week (30 hrs/semester
Study visits
 Course Mode of Assessment
Continuous Assessment 40 %
Two (2) Tests @ 15 % = 30 %
Two (2) Assignments @ 5 % = 10 %

Final Examination 60 %
Course Learning Outcomes

 Clear understanding of ore preparation methods specifically

size reduction, classification and separation;

 Understanding of equipment used for the process and their

operating principles;

 Ability to select proper process and equipment for a

particular mineral recovery.
 Course Contents

1. Basic Concept of Mineral Processing, History and terms

used.

2. Comminution

3. Classification

4. Separation

5. Basic process flow sheets

 Recommended References/Textbooks:

Wills, B. A., (2006)" Mineral Processing Technology"

Oxford; New York : Pergamon Press, latest edition.

Kelly, E. G., Introduction to Mineral Processing, John Wiley

& Sons, New York, latest edition.

Gupta A. & Yan D. S. (2006) Mineral Processing Design &

operation. Perth, Australia.

Curie John M. (1973).Unit Operations in Mineral Processing.

Burnaby, British Columbia.
 History of Mineral Processing
 Mineral processing activities started early. Example the ancient
Egyptians knew already that it would be easier to melt an earth
rich in gold particles than another which is poor. As a result all
efforts were made to enrich the gold by washing away the light
gangue minerals

Fig.1 Beneficiation of gold by washing, an ancient Egyptian wall

painting (Fathi Habashi)
History Cont
• Another example, in middle ages in Europe were tree were
mostly cut to smelt metals such copper, lead; there arose a need
to reduce the consumption of wood fuel by first removing
unwanted minerals.
• To concentrate the ore, there arose the need to crush the ore into
small fragments and latter picking valuable mineral before
feeding to the smelter.
• From that crushing became the first step of mineral
beneficiation.
• Different processes took place early as described below
Comminution

• Crushing is a process of breaking the ore by impact.

• The most primitive form of crushing was holding a hard stone in
the hand and pounding the rock containing the valuable minerals.
• The advancement went to metallic hammer to crush ore to desired
size and latter using principles of levers
•

(a) (b) ©
• (a)Crushing by hand-pounding with a hand stone(b) Crushing by
metallic harmer (c) crushing using principle of lever
 Grinding
• Grinding is ore breakage process to obtain fine ones by using shearing
forces. Early grinding was done using the processes as shown in figures.

(a) (b) (c )
(a) A boy grinding ore with a grindstone (b) Grinding a
material manually between two grindstones - the burrstone
mill ( c) An animal is used to operate a grinding unit.
 Separation

• Separation process of minerals was done in early dates. Example of

the processes is the separation of gold by panning.
• The discovery of magnetism in 10th century increased separation by
magnetic properties differences.
• The other separation processes was hand sorting where valuable
minerals were removed using the hand.
• Floating processes were attempted by using water and oil. The
figures below show the earliest separation processes.
Now days

Improvements were continuously made up to day. In crushing,

crushers have been introduced such jaw crusher which is
electrical and programmed.
Discovery done on electrostatic methods, use of x-rays, and
other separation processes have been the improvement of
mineral processing methods.
 Basic concept of mineral processing

• Mineral processing (mineral dressing or ore dressing or milling or

mineral beneficiation)
• Mineral processing involves the use of physical and chemical
processes to manipulate ore particle size, and concentrate valuable
minerals using the processes of separation, based on such properties
of the ore, as density, chemical composition, electrostatic, or
magnetic properties.
• It prepares ore for extraction of metals in case of metallic ores and it
produces final product for case of no-metallic ores.

• It is a unit operation used to upgrade or recover valuable minerals

from the ore.
 Cont
Profitability of mining activities must be evaluated in terms of
cost used in exploration, mining, mineral processing up to sales.

They income of the minerals sold must be higher than the cost.
Mineral processing activities must aim to produce minerals at
high quantity and low cost.

The task of the mineral processor is to design and performed

concentration activities at high efficiency.
 SOME TERMS USED IN MINERAL PROCESSING

• Mineral; A mineral is a naturally occurring homogeneous solid with a definite

(but generally not fixed) chemical composition and a highly ordered atomic
arrangement.
• Rocks are heterogeneous materials with indefinite chemical and
physical properties
• Mineral deposit is a mineral occurrence of sufficient size and grade
(concentration) to enable extraction under the most favorable
conditions
• Ore. A deposit is considered an ore if it contains mineral(s) which can be
extracted economically. It is an earth material that contains a mineral which is
economically extracted. Ores are classified depending on the form of valuable
mineral, example native ore contains uncombined metals such as gold ore;
sulphide ores, oxide ores, ores can be classified depending on dominant gangue
such siliceous ores
• Ores can be classified as metallic and non-metallic.
• It is considered metallic if the final product is the metal (aluminum
from bauxite) and non-metallic if the end product is the compound
(bauxite).
• Ores are therefore rich deposits of minerals from which valuable
metals can be recovered profitably.
• Complex ore is an ore with more than one valuable mineral
example an ore with copper, gold (consider Bulyanhulu ore)
• Gangue this is the mineral which is contained in the ore which is
uneconomical /unneeded and it must be separated from the
valuable mineral
• Grade of an ore is defined as % of the valuable mineral related to
mass of whole material. Example grade of 10% copper means that
in 100g of copper ore 10g is copper. Units used to describe grade
are such as %, ppm & ppb.
 • Tailing is the material that remains after economically valuable
components have been extracted from the generally ore.
• It is the material obtained after separation processes.
• It contains valuable mineral (less than ore grade because recovery
cannot be 100% in practice) and gangue (high concentration).
• Depending on process used, tailing may contain other
components such as chemicals.
• Mine waste/ Overburden is the term used in mining to describe
material that lies above the coal seam or ore body
• Concentrate is the product of mineral processing which contains
most of valuable mineral and less gangue. Concentration of an ore
is the process of removal of impurities from the ore. This process is
based on the difference in the physical or chemical properties
between the ore and gangue particles.
Recovery of the mineral means the amount (expressed in
percentage) of the original valuable material is removed /
separated from the ore.

Recovery can not be 100% (recall no machine can have

efficiency of 100%)
 Comminution

• A valuable mineral is always found enclosed with a mass of the

rock, to expose the mineral is important to break the ore into
small particles so that the mineral can be exposed for separation
processes.
• Process of breaking the rock to expose the mineral is called
Comminution
• Therefore, comminution is the stage in mineral processing where
mined rock is successively reduced in size until most of gangue
and mineral occur as separate particles.
• It is the earliest stage of mineral processing.
• Liberation or release of valuable mineral from the
Importance of comminution
associated gangue mineral at the coarsest possible size.

• Helps the fresh excavated materials to be carried easily

• To produce particles of controlled size.

 Stages in comminution

• Comminution in processing plant takes place in two main

stages:
• Crushing. This is a process of rock breakage by compression
of ore using a rigid surface.
• Normally crushing a dry process (no use of liquid).
• It can be carried in series of stages; primary, secondary,
tertiary crushing stages with each stage with reduction ratios
ranging from 3-6.
• Equipment used in crushing are called crushers such as cone
crusher, jaw-crusher, and gyratory crushers.
 Grinding.

 This is the process of ore breakage by impact and abrasion on

the ore using hard free motion of unconnected bodies such as
rods, pebbles, steel balls.

 This is the last stage of Comminution which can be either dry

or wet but dry method has less application.

 Grinding equipment are called grinding mill such as ball mill,

roller mill, Autogeneous mill (AG), semi-autogeneous mill
(SAG), pebble mill.
Level of Comminution

• The level of Comminution (size reduction) depends on:

• The process to take place in separation and
• The level of dispersion of the valuable mineral in the mass of
gangue
• Mineral Distribution patterns
 Mineral Distribution patterns
• Always minerals in the ore can occur in most three
distributions patterns. These patterns are massive,
intergrown and disseminated. These patterns lead to
different levels of comminution.
• Massive. Example, coal occurs in bedded/ seams. This type
of the ore needs reasonable amount of grinding and
separation is simple.
• Intergrown. In this type crushing is needed and a bit of
grinding to liberate the mineral
• Disseminate. Example gold ore. This type needs high
amount of grinding in order to liberate the mineral.
Comparing the accumulation of heavy metals in water
and sediment
• It was observed that the heavy metals are highly accumulated in
sediments than in water, since the sediment act as reservoir for
all contaminants
 The Concentration of heavy metals had the trend below:

Sediment Water
Heavy Metal Mean Conc. Heavy Mean Conc.
(mg/kg) Metal (mg/l)
Zn 92.9 Fe 14.8
Fe 68.5 Hg 0.62
Hg 57.3 Pb 0.22
Pb 37.0 Zn 0.09
Cu 11.4 Cr 0.05
Cr 10.5 Cd 0.02
Cd 0.02 Cu 0.01
 - END -

Thank you All