Support against gravity circuit
These processes usually include multiple stages that are interconnected (forming circuits) to maximize recovery and concentrate grade. Usually, the process operation conditions are defined to control the balance between a high recovery of the desired metal and a high grade value of the metal in the product outflow ( Méndez et al., 2009a). Mineral processing comprises many unit operations, such as gravity concentration, magnetic concentration and flotation, which are all aimed at extracting valuable material from ores. Gálvez, in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 2013 1 Introduction They remain, however, the main concentrating methods for iron and tungsten ores and are used extensively for treating tin ores, coal, gold, beach sands, and many industrial minerals.įelipe D. Gravity concentration, or density-based separation methods, declined in importance in the first half of the twentieth century due to the development of froth flotation, which allowed for the selective treatment of low-grade complex ores. In the various gold rushes of the nineteenth century, many prospectors used gold panning as a means to make their fortune-another ancient method of gravity concentration. Some believe that the legend of the Golden Fleece from Homer’s Odyssey was based upon a method of gold recovery, which was to place an animal hide (such as a sheep’s fleece) in a stream containing alluvial gold the dense gold particles would become trapped in the fleece and be recovered. Techniques of gravity concentration have been around for millennia. Gravity concentration is the separation of minerals based upon the difference in density.
Finch FRSC, FCIM, P.Eng., in Wills' Mineral Processing Technology (Eighth Edition), 2016