Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Precedent preparation of items or materials to facilitate... – Selective differentiation
Patent
1984-12-10
1986-04-29
Hart, Charles
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Precedent preparation of items or materials to facilitate...
Selective differentiation
209 9, 209 49, 210633, 210727, B03B 104
Patent
active
045855480
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to separation of mineral material from ore bodies particularly where the mineral is present in low concentrations.
Proposals have been made to separate minerals by utilizing the lyophilic properties of certain minerals. U.S. Pat. No. 3,268,071 uses a liquid suspendant to separate two materials one of which is lyophilic to said liquid and the other being lyophobic. This technique, is difficult to initiate where the mineral which is sought to be recovered is present in low concentrations.
U.K. Pat. No. 161560 (1921) discloses an oil agglomeration of solids with a coal carrier. This specification is specifically concerned with concentration of iron fines in steel mills. There is no suggestion of how this technique can be adapted to recover minerals present in ore bodies in low concentrations.
In Australian Pat. Nos. 450,549 and 475,788 the use of coal char has been proposed for mineral separation but these patents rely on the adsorbent properties of the coal char to adsorb ions from solution in contrast to the present invention which is concerned with minerals in solid mixtures.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the recovery of minerals present in low concentrations.
To this end the present invention provides a method of recovering a mineral having a lyophilic surface present in low concentration in a mixture of solids comprising grinding the mixture of solids forming a slurry of said solids either before or after said grinding step, adding thereto in a contacting zone a carbon source material and hydrocarbon liquid, mixing said slurry of solids, carbon source and hydrocarbon liquid in an agglomeration zone to form agglomerates containing said lyophilic mineral carbon source material and hydrocarbon liquid, separating said agglomerates from the remaining slurry of solids and subsequently recycling said agglomerates to said contacting zone, the size of agglomerates in said contacting zone being below 500 microns and repeating the process until the concentration of lyophillic mineral in the separated agglomerates has reached a desired level and then recovering said mineral from said agglomerates.
Preferably the carbon source material is coal and the hydrocarbon liquid is an oil selected from kerosine, light gas oil or fuel oils. In most cases it is necessary to pretreat the ores to condition them so that the surfaces of the minerals present are rendered either lyophilic or lyophobic.
The minerals to which the present invention is particularly applicable are gold present in its native form, copper present as chalcopyrite and other metallic, metallic sulphide or metallic oxide minerals present in low concentrations. Gold usually requires no pretreatment as its surface is lyophilic. The other minerals normally require the addition of reagents to make their surfaces lyophillic.
An important aspect of this invention is to increase the likelihood of contact between the coal/oil mix and the desired solid. By recycling agglomerates to the contacting zone it is possible to increase the concentration of the desired solid in the coal agglomerates. The number of recycling steps is not critical but depends on the desired level of mineral value recovery. However this is increased if the size of the agglomerates after disintegration is below 500 microns as this increases the available surface contact and the likelihood of contact occurring is increased.
In this invention the carbon source material, hydrocarbon liquid and ground solids are intimately mixed to increase surface contact in the contacting zone by using as the contacting zone a disintegration device selected from a rodmill, a shear scrubber, a pump/pipe loop or an in line mixer or other similar device. Further oil may be added in the agglomeration tank where the mixture is agitated. Residence time in the agglomeriation zone may vary from 5 to 300 minutes and will depend in part on the desired size of the final agglomerates.
A typical plant layout used according to this invention is shown in the drawing.
The ore is crushed by
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Cadzow Mark D.
Elkes Graham J.
Ewin Gavin J.
Mainwaring David E.
BP Australia Limited
Hart Charles
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