What is gravity separation process? What kind of mines is it suitable for? --Highly efficient and environmentally friendly beneficiation technology analysis

In the field of mining production and resource recovery, gravity beneficiation process is a physical beneficiation method with a long history, mature technology and vital importance. With its significant advantages of low cost, high efficiency and no pollution, it has become the preferred solution for processing a wide range of mineral resources. If you are looking for a cost-effective beneficiation method, an in-depth understanding of gravity beneficiation will be the key to making the right decision.

First, what is gravity beneficiation process?

Core principle:
The core principle of gravity beneficiation is based on the density difference between different mineral particles (or specific gravity difference), in some kind of medium (usually water or air), with the help of hydrodynamic and mechanical force, to realize the process of separation of light and heavy minerals.

Simply put, just like the "rice", shaking the rice bowl in the water, full grains of rice (heavy minerals) will sink to the bottom, while the bran (light pulsates) will float on top of the water washed away. Gravity beneficiation is the industrialization and scaling up of this natural process.

Requirements:
There are two basic conditions that need to be met to achieve effective gravity separation:

1. There is a density difference between the minerals: this is the prerequisite for gravity separation to work. The greater the density difference, the easier and more effective the separation.

2. Sufficient dissociation of mineral monomers: useful minerals must be sufficiently dissociated from the veinstone to become independent particles. If they are still tightly contiguous, the sorting effect will be greatly reduced.

Main methods and equipment:
A variety of highly efficient methods and equipment have been developed for gravity beneficiation, based on subtle differences in media and principles:

• Jigging beneficiation:

  • Principle: using the vertical alternating motion of the water flow, so that the group of mineral particles loose, stratification, the density of minerals located in the lower layer, the density of small located in the upper layer, and then discharged separately.

  • Equipment: jigger.

  • Characteristics: wide range of processing particle size, large processing capacity, is a sharp tool for coarse-grained material sorting.

• Shaking table beneficiation:

  • Principle: with the asymmetric reciprocating motion of the bed surface and water flushing, so that the ore particles in the bed strips according to the density and particle size of the "refined" type of sorting.

  • Equipment: Shaking table (mineral processing shaking table).

  • Characteristics: sorting precision is very high, can produce a variety of products at the same time, but the processing capacity is relatively small, commonly used in the selection operation.

• Spiral chute beneficiation:

  • Principle: slurry from the top of the spiral chute to feed, in the process of downward flow along the tank body, by gravity, centrifugal force, friction and water film effect of the combined effect of the force, the heavy minerals tend to the inner edge, the light minerals tend to the outer edge, so as to realize the separation.

  • Equipment: spiral chute.

  • Characteristics: simple structure, no power, large processing capacity, very low operating costs, very suitable for the separation of medium and fine-grained materials.

• Centrifugal beneficiation:

  • Principle: Using the powerful centrifugal force generated by high-speed rotation, it simulates and amplifies the gravity field, which greatly accelerates the sedimentation and stratification speed of micro-fine grained heavy minerals.

  • Equipment: centrifugal concentrator, Nelson concentrator.

  • Characteristics: the recovery of fine-grained heavy minerals has a significant effect, especially suitable for the recovery of fine-grained gold and other precious metals.

Second, gravity separation is suitable for processing which minerals?

Gravity separation has a very wide range of applications, mainly suitable for processing useful minerals and veins between the existence of obvious density difference between the ores. The following are its most typical application areas:

1. Gold, platinum and other precious metal ores

• Applicability: The density of natural gold and platinum is extremely high (15-19 g/cm³), much higher than that of quartz and other veinstones (2.65 g/cm³), and the density difference is huge.

• Application: Whether it is the pretreatment of gravity separation of rock gold ore or the washing of alluvial gold ore, gravity separation (especially jigger, centrifuge, shaking table) is the most core and economic method, known as "the best choice for gold panning".

2. Tungsten, tin ore

• Applicability: wolframite (7.1-7.5 g/cm³) and cassiterite (6.8-7.1 g/cm³) have high density and are easy to separate from veins.

• Application: Gravity separation is the traditional and dominant process of tungsten and tin ore dressing, usually using the classic process of "jig roughing - shaking table selection". 3.

3. Titanium, zirconium, rare earth beach sand ore

• Applicability: ilmenite (4.7 g/cm³), rutile (4.2 g/cm³), zircon (4.7 g/cm³), monazite (4.9-5.3 g/cm³), etc. are significantly greater than the density of quartz sand.

• Application: For this type of alluvial or seasidesandore, gravity separation (especially spiral chute) is the preferred rougher and enriched method, with a large processing capacity and very high cost-effectiveness.

4. Iron ore

• Applicability: Hematite (5.3 g/cm³), magnetite (5.2 g/cm³) and siliceous veinstones have significant density differences.

• Application: For coarse-grained embedded iron ores, gravity separation (e.g. spiral chute) is often used for pre-enrichment or final sorting.

5. Other minerals

• It also includes preconcentration of lead-zinc ore, beneficiation of diamonds, separation of chromite, etc.

Why choose our gravity beneficiation solutions?

The key to the success of gravity beneficiation lies in accurate mineral property analysis, reasonable process design and reliable equipment performance. We offer you:

• Free beneficiation test: analyze your mineral samples through professional laboratory to determine the best gravity beneficiation process and expected indexes.

• Individualized solution design: according to your ore characteristics, production demand and budget, tailor-made the most cost-effective solution.

• Full set of equipment supply and support: Provide a full set of products from feeding, crushing, screening to all kinds of gravity separation equipment (jigger, spiral chute, shaking table, centrifuge).

• Turnkey project service: from design, installation, commissioning to worker training, we provide one-stop service to ensure the smooth commissioning of the project.

Contact us now for a free technical program! Let our professional gravity separation technology create maximum value for your mining project!