Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792

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Recent developments in magnetic methods of material separation

a,*,1 b
J. Svoboda , T. Fujita
a
De Beers Consolidated Mines, Minerals Processing Division Diamond Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 82851, Southdale 2135,
Johannesburg, South Africa
b
Department of Geosystem Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Received 10 May 2003; accepted 14 June 2003

Abstract
Magnetic techniques are the cornerstone of material manipulation and over the last 30 years these methods have undergone
dramatic developments. Advantages of magnetic methods of material treatment are numerous and the spectrum of applications of
this technique is formidable. Numerous technological milestones and key drivers of innovations in magnetic separation have re-
sulted in a wide range of magnetic techniques that are available for application in various industries. This paper reviews the current
status of magnetic separation and outlines the future trends in research and development.

2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Magnetic separation; Fine particle processing; Recycling; Industrial minerals; Iron ores; Non-ferrous metallic ores

1. Introduction manent magnetic materials allowed magnetic separation

(MS) to be applied to materials ranging from coarse to
The ancient Greeks were familiar with some phe- colloidal and from strongly magnetic to diamagnetic.
nomena of magnetism as early as 550 BC. Socrates
observed that this stone Euripides called the magnet does
not simply attract the iron rings, it also imparts to the 2. Principles of separation by magnetic force
rings a force enabling them to do the same thing as the
stone itself . . . (Livingston, 1997). It was believed that When a magnetisable particle is placed in a non-
the force exerted without touching is delivered by homogeneous magnetic field, it is acted upon by the
magnetic effluvium flowing between lodestone and iron. magnetic force given by
The practical significance of magnetism, and of mag- j
~
Fm ¼ VBr ~B ð1Þ
netic separation in particular, was recognised only as l0
late as the middle of the 19th century. Ball, Norton,
Edison and others demonstrated the possibility of sep- where j is the volumetric magnetic susceptibility of the
aration of coarse strongly magnetic iron ores from particle, l0 is the magnetic permeability of vacuum, V is
‘‘non-magnetic’’ gangue. Since the end of the 19th cen- the volume of the particle, B is the external magnetic
induction and r ~B is the gradient of the magnetic in-
tury the separability of magnetic from less magnetic
materials was demonstrated in numerous applications duction. Magnetic force is thus proportional to the
by a broad range of magnetic separators. However, only product of the external magnetic field and the field
recent considerable progress in the understanding of the gradient and has the direction of the gradient. In a ho-
mogeneous magnetic field, in which r ~B ¼ 0, the force
fundamentals of magnetism and development of per-
on a particle is zero.
In a magnetic separator several competing forces are
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +27-11-374-6300; fax: +27-11-374- acting on the particles. These are, among others, the
6640. force of gravity, the inertial force, the hydrodynamic
E-mail addresses: jsvoboda@global.co.za, jan.svoboda@debeers-
group.com (J. Svoboda), tfujita@geosyst.t.u.-tokyo.ac.jp (T. Fujita).
drag, and surface and inter-particle forces. This situa-
1
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Resource Science, tion is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The force of
Akita University, Akita, Japan. gravity can be written as
0892-6875/$ - see front matter
2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0892-6875(03)00212-7
786 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792

Table 1
The effect of particle size on separability
Particle size [a.u.] Magnetic Magnetic force [a.u.]
susceptibility [a.u.]
10 1 1000
1 1000 1000

where the hydrodynamic drag can be important, selec-

tivity of the separation will be influenced by particle size
distribution. With decreasing particle size the relative
importance of the hydrodynamic drag increases in
comparison to the magnetic force.
The non-selective nature of the magnetic force is il-
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the process of magnetic separation. lustrated in Table 1. It can be seen that the same mag-
netic force is exerted on a coarse, weakly magnetic
particle as on a small, considerably more strongly
~
Fg ¼ qV ~
g ð2Þ magnetic particle. Both particles will appear in the same
where q is the density of the particle while g is the ac- product of separation unless the competing forces affect
celeration of gravity. particles of different sizes in a different manner.
The hydrodynamic drag is given by
2.1. Generation of the magnetic field and its gradient
~
Fd ¼ 6pgb~
vp ð3Þ
where g is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid, b is the Although permanent magnets have been used to
particle radius and vp is the relative velocity of the generate the magnetic field in magnetic separators for
particle with respect to the fluid. many decades, their popularity further increased when
Magnetic particles will be separated from ‘‘non- inexpensive ferrite magnets, with high-energy product
magnetic’’ (or more magnetic particles from less mag- and coercive force, became available. Later a new gen-
netic particles), if the following conditions are met: eration of permanent magnet-based roll magnetic sepa-
X X rators appeared when powerful rare-earth permanent
Fmmag > Fcmag and Fmnon-mag < Fcnon-mag ð4Þ magnets were developed. A peak magnetic field of 1.9 T,
where Fc is a competing force while F mag and F non-mag are with very high gradient, can be generated on the surface
forces acting on magnetic and ‘‘non-magnetic’’ particles, of such rolls.
respectively. In the early days, iron-core electromagnets were used
In order to achieve high recovery of magnetic parti- to generate the magnetic field in magnetic separators.
cles, the magnetic separating force must thus be greater Although these magnets still play an important role,
than the sum of the competing forces, as shown in Eq. their significance has diminished with the advent of
(4). If, however, permanent magnets and air-core solenoid electromag-
nets, either resistive or superconducting. The main
Fmag
Fcomp
drawback of the iron-core magnets is that the achievable
selectivity of separation will be poor, as no distinction magnetic field is limited by the saturation magnetisation
will be made between various magnetisable particles. of iron. Moreover, the scale-up of these magnets is also
The selectivity of the process will be critically deter- restricted, resulting in a decreased magnetic field and an
mined by the relative values of the magnetic and com- increase in mass of the equipment, even at the modest
peting forces. And these are affected by a correct choice width of the working space, typical of a separator. The
of a separator itself and its operating conditions. magnetic field generated by these magnets usually does
Although the conditions of efficient separation are not exceed 1 T.
clearly defined, a complication arises because the rela- On the other hand, resistive solenoid magnets can
tive significance of the forces is determined mainly by create a magnetic field as high as 2 T in large volumes of
the particle size. It can be seen from Eqs. (1)–(3) that the working space. These magnets thus allowed the
while Fm / b3 or b2 , the competing forces have the building of large high-intensity magnetic separators
following dependence on particles size: Fd / b1 and capable of treating as much as 100 t/h of material.
Fg / b3 . In dry magnetic separation where Fd is usually Superconducting magnets extended the range of the
negligible, the particle size, as a rule, does not affect the available magnetic field to 5 T or higher, although the
efficiency of separation significantly because of the same need for magnetic induction greater than 2 T has never
particle size dependence of the magnetic force and of the been convincingly demonstrated in most applications
force of gravity. On the other hand, in wet separation (Svoboda, 1987, 1994).
 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792 787

separators usually generate a low magnetic field gradient

while high-intensity separators can be, in general, clas-
sified as high-gradient machines. There are, however,
exceptions to this rule.
The choice of the class of a separator is dictated by
numerous considerations, the most important being
the particle size distribution, distribution of magnetic
properties of particles to be separated from one another,
and by the required throughput of the machine.

3.1. Dry low-intensity magnetic separators

The main application of dry low-intensity magnetic

separators is either the removal of tramp iron and of
strongly magnetic impurities or the concentration of
Fig. 2. Magnetic force generated by various magnetic separators, on a
hematite particle, as a function of particle size.
a strongly magnetic valuable component. Suspended
magnets, magnetic pulleys and plate and grate magnets
are usually employed to perform the former task while
There are two fundamental methods of generating the magnetic drums are used mainly for the latter applica-
gradient of the magnetic field, which, as follows from Eq. tion. Fig. 3 illustrates a typical suspended (or overband)
(1), is equally important for the efficiency of magnetic magnet while Fig. 4 depicts a magnetic pulley.
separation. By a judicious arrangement of permanent
magnet elements or by a suitable shaping or positioning 3.2. Wet low-intensity magnetic separators
of the pole pieces it is possible to exploit a variation of the
magnetic field as a function of distance from the mag- By far the most frequently used wet low-intensity
netic field generating element. This, the so-called open- magnetic separators are drum separators. With the
gradient arrangement, is used in most drum, roll and
plate magnetic separators. The magnetic field gradient of
approximately 1 T/m can be achieved in a suspended
magnet, while in rare-earth permanent magnet rolls, the
value of the field gradient is of the order of 100 T/m.
A significant increase in the magnetic field gradient
can be achieved by placing ferromagnetic bodies (such
as balls, mesh or steel wool) into the magnetic field of a
separator (Frantz, 1937). These bodies (usually called a
matrix), generate, when magnetised, a high local field
gradient of the magnitude as high as 5 · 104 T/m. This
innovation extended considerably the range of the
magnetic force and thus the applicability of magnetic
separation to many weakly magnetic or even diamag-
netic minerals of the micrometer size. Fig. 2 illustrates
the range of magnetic force generated different classes of Fig. 3. Suspended magnet for the removal of tramp iron (courtesy of
magnetic separators. Steinert GmbH).

3. Review of magnetic separators

Various classification schemes of magnetic separators

have been introduced and probably the most practical
and logical is the one that classifies separators as either
dry or wet. At the same time, these separators can op-
erate with a low-intensity or high-intensity magnetic
field (Svoboda, 1987). This scheme does not take into
consideration the gradient of the magnetic field, an
equally important parameter in magnetic separation.
It can be, however, safely assumed that low-intensity Fig. 4. Magnetic pulley for separation of strongly magnetic materials.
788 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792

advent of ferrite permanent magnets, permanent mag- other hand, the axial configuration is preferred when
net-based units almost completely replaced the electro- the quality of the magnetic product is of significance.
magnetic drum concept. These separators are used The tumbling motion of particles over the rows of the
mainly for the recovery of heavy medium, such as magnet with alternating polarity facilitates the release of
magnetite or ferrosilicon used in dense medium separa- entrained non-magnetic particles and thus improves the
tion. Plant installation of such a separator is shown in grade of the magnetic concentrate.
Fig. 5.
Concentration of strongly magnetic ores, such as 3.3. Dry high-intensity magnetic separators
magnetite, is another application. The availability of
rare-earth permanent magnets and their improving af- It appears that the minerals industry has always had a
fordability further extends the applicability of drum great need to beneficiate coarse weakly magnetic min-
magnetic separators to medium or even weakly magnetic erals. A wide spectrum of magnetic separators for this
materials. application has been developed and used on an indus-
There are two basic designs of permanent magnet trial scale over the last 50 years. A cross-belt separator
drum separators, namely radial and axial configura- and an induced magnetic separator shown in Fig. 7 used
tions, as illustrated in Fig. 6. In a radial configuration, to be particularly popular electromagnet-based ma-
the polarity of permanent magnets alternates across the chines.
drum width, while in an axial arrangement, the poles However, the development of permanent magnetic
alternate along the circumference. Radial configuration materials and an improvement in their magnetic prop-
is usually used in those applications where the recovery erties over the last 20 years, proved to be one of the
of the strongly magnetic material is important. On the main drivers of innovation in dry magnetic separation.
Fig. 8 illustrates the history of improvement of the
energy product of permanent magnets. With the advent
of rare-earth permanent magnetic materials it became
possible to construct magnetic roll separators that gen-
erate a magnetic force that exceeds that produced by
electromagnetic high-intensity separators.
Although the magnetic field cannot be easily varied,
by a judicious selection of the permanent magnetic
material and by optimising the geometrical configura-
tion of such a roll, it is possible to design rolls for
treatment of materials of different size ranges and
magnetic susceptibility distributions. A permanent roll
separator shown in Figs. 9 and 10 has significantly lower
Fig. 5. Low-intensity wet permanent magnet drum separator. mass and size than an induced magnetic roll separator.
The absence of an air gap means that large particles can
be treated.

Fig. 6. Pole configurations in drum magnetic separators. Fig. 7. The Carpco induced magnetic roll separator.
 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792 789

Fig. 10. Details of a permanent magnet roll.

Fig. 8. Progress in development of permanent magnetic materials.

3.4. Wet high-intensity high-gradient magnetic separators

The introduction of a matrix into a circuit of mag-

netic separators resulted in a dramatic extension of the
applicability of magnetic separation to materials that
were previously considered too fine and too feebly
magnetic. This development was achieved by Jones
(1960) who combined FrantzÕ idea (Frantz, 1937) of a
magnetised matrix with a high magnetic field. One of the
more advanced designs based on JonesÕ concept was, for
instance, the SALA HGMS shown in Fig. 12. Although
numerous cyclic and continuous wet high-intensity high-
gradient magnetic separators (WHIMS or HGMS) were
designed and built, only a few met the requirements of
the mining industry. Kaolin purification, iron-ore and
Fig. 9. Permanent magnetic roll separator.
beach sand beneficiation are examples of successful ap-
plications.
The considerable technical and commercial success of Poor selectivity and matrix blockage were often re-
permanent magnet roll separators is a result of two sponsible for the declining reputation of HGMS. This
factors. The first is the availability of a large variety of problem was successfully addressed by the VMS sepa-
magnet grades and sizes and the decreasing cost. The rator (Cibulka et al., 1985) developed in the Czech
second aspect that is playing an important role is the Republic and shown in Fig. 13. The conventional hori-
availability of electromagnetic modelling software that zontal rotor was replaced by a vertically rotating ring
allows the optimisation of the design, as is illustrated in and reverse flush was introduced. The VMS separator
Fig. 11. was further upgraded by introducing a bottom feed into

Fig. 11. Modelling of the magnetic field distribution around a magnet roll.
790 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792

Fig. 12. SALA 480 HGMS in operation.

Fig. 14. VMS HGMS with bottom feed.

Fig. 13. Schematic diagram of VMS HGMS.

Fig. 15. SLON pulsating high-gradient magnetic separator.

the separator and a continuous control of the slurry magnetic force in a large volume without using matrices,
velocity through the matrix (Fig. 14). by employing open-gradient configurations of the coils
This concept was developed further in the SLON (Good and Kopp, 1984).
magnetic separator (Xiong, 1994). In this separator, Purification of kaolin by removing quasi-colloidal,
developed in China and shown in Fig. 15, a slurry within very weakly magnetic iron and titanium oxides is the
the matrix is exposed to pulsation, which results in a main application of the superconducting HGMS. Fig.
better separation selectivity. 16 shows a continuous superconducting HGMS that
uses the concept of a reciprocating matrix. Operating at
3.5. Superconductivity in magnetic separation a magnetic field of 5 T generated in the bore, of diameter
of 1000 mm, this Outokumpu-Carpco machine can
Although the technological significance of supercon- process up to 100 tons of slurry per hour.
ductivity is considerable, its importance for magnetic
separation does not seem to represent a major break- 3.6. Eddy-current separators and separation in magnetic
through. Since the need for magnetic induction exceed- fluid
ing 2 T is not obvious (Svoboda, 1994), the main
advantage of superconducting magnets is thus the re- Magnetic technology has responded to the environ-
duced energy consumption and lower mass. Supercon- mental and economic needs to recycle metals and me-
ducting magnets also allow the generation of a high tallic products, and efficient eddy-current separators
 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792 791

density different from its natural density. This apparent

density can be controlled through a wide range of val-
ues, exceeding densities of all known elements and ma-
terials. Numerous ferrohydrostatic (FHS) separators
have been designed over the last 20 years for separation
of non-ferrous metals from automobile scrap and for
recovery of gold, platinum-group metals and diamonds
(Fujita, 1996; Svoboda, 2000). Although this effort has
demonstrated that it is possible to achieve a high selec-
tivity of separation at industrially meaningful rates,
wide-scale implementation of FHS has not yet hap-
pened. The availability of cost-effective, environmentally
and user-friendly magnetic fluids that can be easily
recycled is likely to enhance the significant potential
of FHS.
Fig. 16. Superconducting HGMS Cryofilter (courtesy of Outokumpu
Technology, Carpco Division).
4. Future trends in magnetic separation
have been developed. By exposing the non-magnetic
electrically conductive particles of non-ferrous metals to Magnetic separation and magnetic techniques in
an alternating magnetic field, eddy currents generate general have been applied, with variable success, in
their own alternating magnetic field opposing the ex- numerous areas of engineering and science. This tech-
ternal field. The resultant magnetic repulsion produces nique has at its disposal the magnetic force, which can
spatial displacement of components of the mixture, de- be selectively controlled over a wide range of values and
pending on their conductivity and density (Schloemann, is universal in nature since all matter possesses magnetic
1982). properties.
Most designs of eddy-current separators employ ro- Fig. 17 illustrates the current research and develop-
tating drums fitted with earth permanent magnets, ar- ment trends and the future focus (Svoboda, 2001).
ranged with alternating polarity. A schematic diagram Several areas that are likely to receive attention can be
of such a separator is shown in Fig. 17. The common identified, such as improved understanding of the the-
drawback of most commercial eddy-current separators oretical and operational principles of HGMS, judicious
is a poor separation of particles smaller than 5 mm. and justified incorporation of superconductivity, with
Therefore, recent developments have been directed to- particular emphasis on both high-temperature super-
wards efficient separation of small non-ferrous metal conductivity and the inclusion of advanced permanent
particles (Zhang et al., 1999). These developments allow magnetic materials into new magnet design.
the application of the eddy current technique to the As is shown in Fig. 18, magnetic separation methods
separation of metal particles as small as 0.1 mm. that have been conceived empirically and applied in
Selective recycling and separation of individual non- practice, such as superconducting MS, small particle (<5
ferrous metals can be achieved using magnetic fluids as a mm) eddy-current separation and biomedical MS, are
separating medium. When a magnetic fluid is placed in a being studied from a more fundamental point of view
non-homogeneous magnetic field it exhibits an apparent and further progress can be expected in the near future.

Fig. 17. Drum eddy-current separator for the recovery of non-ferrous metals.
792 J. Svoboda, T. Fujita / Minerals Engineering 16 (2003) 785–792

feature, and a wealth of novel designs and ideas, into

workable techniques and to introduce them into mate-
rial treatment operations. It is hoped that in the future
less reliance on an empirical or heuristic approach and
a better environment for innovation, will facilitate re-
search and the development of novel magnetism-based
technologies in numerous areas of human endeavour.

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