Jimma University

Jimma Institute of Technology

Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering

IV YEAR – II SEMESTER

Beneficiation processing control– MpME4102

Yiene Molla

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Introduction

 The use of minerals has been instrumental in raising the standard of living of
mankind. The sophisticated world of today is largely the result of the enlarged
use of minerals for various purposes.
 All engineering and structural materials, machinery, plants, equipment and
anything from a pin to a plane are manufactured from metals extracted from
minerals.
 Some minerals form the starting point for basic industries like cement, fertilizer,
ceramic, electrical, insulating, refractory, paint and abrasive materials and a
host of chemicals.
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 There is not a single industry which can do without minerals or their products.
Minerals, thus, form part and parcel of our daily life.

MINERALS
• As defined by Dana, a well known physicist: Mineral is a substance having
definite chemical composition and internal atomic structure and formed by the
inorganic processes of nature [1]
Minerals are broadly classified into two types:
1 Metallic minerals.
2 Non-metallic minerals.

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 IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY

 Rock is an aggregation of several minerals as occurred in the earth’s crust.

 Ore is also an aggregation of several minerals from which one or more minerals
can be exploited/separated at profit.
 All Ores are Rocks, but all Rocks are not Ores
 An Ore at one place may be a Rock at other place
 Ore Minerals or Valuable Minerals are those minerals which contain an
economically exploitable quantity of some metal or non-metal.
 Gangue Minerals are usually the non-metallic minerals associated with ore
minerals which are worthless as a source for that metal or otherwise.
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 Ore Deposits are the natural deposits of ore minerals.
 Ore is an aggregation of valuable and gangue minerals.
 Simple Ore is one from which a single metal can be extracted. For example, only
Iron is extracted from Hematite ore, Aluminium is extracted from Bauxite ore,
Chromium is extracted from Chromite ore, etc.
 Complex Ore is one from which two or more metals can be extracted. Lead,
Zinc and Copper metals are extracted from Lead-Zinc-Copper Ore.
 Metal Content of a mineral is generally expressed in percent of metal present in
the mineral. It is calculated by taking the atomic weights of the elements present
in the mineral.

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 Grade is a relative term used to represent the value of an ore.
 High Grade Ore is an ore having a high assay value and Low Grade Ore is
an ore having a low assay value. The Ore having an assay value between
that of high and low value is called
 Medium Grade Ore.
 Rich Ore and Lean Ore are the other terms of common usage where an ore
with a high assay value is rich ore and an ore with low assay value is lean
ore.

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 BENEFICIATION

 Separation of the wanted part from the aggregation of wanted and unwanted
parts by physical methods is termed as Beneficiation. Separation of rice from
the mixture of rice and stones is the example known to everyone.

MINERAL BENEFICIATION
• As defined by A.M. Gaudin Mineral Beneficiation can be defined as
processing of raw minerals to yield marketable products and waste by means
of physical or mechanical methods in such a way that the physical and
chemical identity of the minerals are not destroyed.

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 • It follows that mineral beneficiation is a
process designed to meet the needs of the
consumer of minerals.
• run-of-mine Ore is an ore directly taken
from the mine, as it is mined.

Figure. shows the successive major steps involved in processing the ores

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• Geologists conduct a geological survey and estimate the ore reserves, their
quality and tenor.
• Mining engineers mine the ore and bring it to the surface of the earth.
• Mineral Engineers beneficiate the ore to higher tenor.
• Thus beneficiated ore, if it is metallic ore, is smelted and the metal is
extracted which is further utilized for the production of alloys. If the ore is
non metallic, beneficiated ore is directly utilized for the production of
various products like cement, fertilizers etc.

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 Smelting operation, for the extraction of a metal, requires:
• Uniform quality of the ore.
• Appropriate size of the ore.
• Minimum tenor of the ore.
 Beneficiation of run-of-mine ore is done to achieve the above.
 The primary object of Mineral Beneficiation is to eliminate either unwanted
chemical species or particles of unsuitable size or structure.

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 During beneficiation, much of the gangue minerals, usually present in large
quantities in many ores, are eliminated or removed.
 The benefits are:
1. Freight and handling costs reduced.
2. Cost of extraction (smelting) reduced.
3. Loss of metal in slag reduced.
 By doing beneficiation, lean ores can be made technically suitable for extraction
of metal. Mineral Beneficiation is usually carried out at the mine site.
 The essential reason is to reduce the bulk of the ore which must be transported,
thus saving the transport cost.

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The reasons for the increasing importance of Mineral Beneficiation are:
1. Reserves of good quality ore (high grade ore) are depleting day by day as much
of such ore is continuously mined and utilized for extraction of metal and hence
it is unavoidable to use low grade ores (which need beneficiation) for metal
extraction to meet the demands.
2. In order to use un-mined reserves of a particular mine, switching over from
Selective mining to a cheaper mining method, Bulk mining, is found to be
more economical wherein beneficiation is a must.
3. When compared to metallurgical processes Mineral Beneficiation is
inexpensive.

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 MINERAL BENEFICIATION OPERATIONS

• The following are some of the synonymous terms used for Mineral Beneficiation:
Mineral Dressing
Mineral Processing
Ore Dressing
Ore Processing
Ore Preparation
Ore Concentration
Ore Upgradation
Ore Enrichment
Milling

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The principal steps involved in beneficiation of Minerals are:
1. Liberation: Detachment or freeing of dissimilar particles from each other i.e.
valuable minéral particles and gangue mineral particles.
Operations: Crushing, Grinding
2. Separation: Actual separation of liberated dissimilar particles i.e., valuable
mineral particles and gangue mineral particles.
Operations: Gravity concentration
Heavy Medium Separation
Jigging
Spiraling
Tabling
Flotation
Magnetic separation
Electrical separation
Miscellaneous operations like hand sorting
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Supporting Operations:
Preliminary washing
Screening
Classification
Thickening
Filtration
Handling of materials
Storage
Conveying
Feeding
Pumping
Pneumatic and Slurry transport

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 Chapter 2

• General layout of a coal/ mineral beneficiation plants

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 Float-Sink (Washability) Test
• Float-sink tests are done on samples of coal from beds that will likely need washing
(beneficiation, preparation) to remove sulfur or ash (rock and mineral matter) from the coal to
meet the desired specifications of the end user. The float-sink analysis determines how much
coal can be separated from rock and minerals in fluids of different densities.

 Because coal is less dense than most rocks and minerals (such as pyrite), it floats
in liquids of equal or greater density than the coal; rock and pyrite sink.
 The amount of material floating is skimmed from the top of the test container,
dried, and weighed as the float fraction at that liquid’s density.
 The density and ash content of the float fraction are also measured. The material
that sinks is also dried and weighed, and its density and ash content is measured.
This is the sink fraction.
In washability tests, coal samples are separated into float and sink fractions in
liquids of increasing density.
 3. Process control
1. Introduction: Need for process control
2. Basic Data Required for Control System Design:
3. Types of Control Actions
4 Instrumentation for measurement

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