GB525804A - Improvements in or relating to gravity separation of ores - Google Patents

Abstract

525,804. Washing granular materials. WADE H. H. March 30, 1939, No. 9994. Convention date, March 31, 1938. [Class 82 (ii)] A method of concentrating an ore having a specific gravity in excess of 2.5 consists in delivering the crude ore into a fluid mass consisting of an iron composition and water, said composition containing in excess of 75 per cent. by weight of magnetic iron, maintaining the specific gravity of said mass at a point intermediate between 2.5 and 3.3 to float the tailings from the ore and allow the ore concentrate to settle therein, separately removing the concentrate and tailings from the mass, washing said tailings and concentrate to remove adhering particles of said mass therefrom, recovering the metallic constituent of the fluid mass from the wash water by magnetic attraction and returning the constituent so recovered to the fluid mass. Ferro-silicon, containing, e.g. 82 per cent. of iron, or high carbon steel in which the iron constituent exceeds 75 per cent., may be mixed with about 25 per cent. of its weight of water to form the fluid mass. The ore is fed from a bin 5 to a pipe 8 leading into a separation tank 9 into which the fluid mass having a specific gravity between 2.5 and 3.3 is also fed. The concentrates sink in the tank and are led to a screen 27 down over which they pass. Accompanying separating medium passes through the first part of the screen into a basin 28 from which it passes back into a collecting box 19 and thence again to the tank 9. Over the remainder of the screen the concentrates are sprayed with water, and the separating medium thus washed off is collected in a basin 33 and passed to a chute 38 over which operates a magneticseparator 40, the magnetic constituent of the separating medium being thus separated and passed to a settling vessel 46 from which it passes through a demagnetizer 50 for the removal of residual magnetism and thence to the collecting box 19 and the tank 9. The tailings are similarly treated over a screen 15 and the magnetic constituent of the separating medium similarly recovered.