A mineralogical investigation into the pre-concentration of the Nechalacho deposit by gravity separation

Abstract

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Physical beneficiation of heavy minerals – Part 1: A state of the art literature review on gravity concentration techniques

“…Gravity concentration involves the physical separation of minerals and relies on the basis of their SG differences [ 55 , 56 ]. Over the decades, a lot of gravity concentration techniques have been employed and reported for the beneficiation, recovery and upgrade of Zr/Ti bearing minerals and other HM sands [ 7 , 10 , 18 , [57] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] , [65] , [66] , [67] ].…”

“…Gravity concentration of HM sands are usually carried out in-situ, in order to separate and return the lighter minerals in the mineral ore deposit to the mined out area and often times at the tailings’ heap [ 78 ]. Several researchers have however employed this traditional method of mineral beneficiation, and regarded it to be efficient, due to its affordability and low cost/capital, its comparative environmental friendliness and of course its simplicity in process operation as well as its relatively low operational cost (as no chemical reagents and high temperature treatment processes are required) [ 7 , 55 , 56 , 79 , 80 ]. Also, the mineral liberation feasibility and success of a gravity concentration technique is dependent on the mineralogy, the SG differences and distribution of particle sizes in the feed mineral to be beneficiated [ 67 ].…”

“…These challenges are especially related to the mineralogy complexity, its grade/purity level or degree of association with gangue minerals, SG differences, shape/particle size and other characteristics distributed in the mineral ore feed particles [ 21 , 83 , 84 ]. Although, SG of the minerals is regarded as the major factor to be considered during gravity concentration operation, the mineral particle shape and particle sizes of these minerals are equally of great influence and key factors to be considered during the beneficiation operation [ 55 , 67 , 77 , 80 ]. According to Das and Sarkar [ 77 ] and Abaka-Wood et al [ 67 ], the settling velocity of these mineral particles during the gravity concentration operation is highly dependent on the particle sizes of the mineral feeds.…”

“…It is imperative to note that the different gravity separation methods may be classified into conventional gravity concentrations (CGC) which involves the use of spirals, jigs, shaking tables, dense media separators, and the enhanced gravity concentrations (EGC), such as: Falcon, Knelson, Kelsey jigs, Mozley multi gravity concentrators [ 21 , 55 , [92] , [93] , [94] , [95] ]. The CGC processes have been reported inefficient in the beneficiation of fine/ultra-fine mineral particles, especially in their selectivity and mineral recovery [ 87 , 92 , 95 , 96 ], hence development and adoption of EGC.…”

Identification of rare-earth minerals associated to K-feldspar: Capacsaya project in Peru

“…After its discovery, more than 200 years ago [15], immediately faced the problem of separating one element from another, representing a great challenge for the industrial and scientific community. Several physical techniques including gravity [16][17][18][19], flotation [20][21][22][23], magnetic [24,25], and electrostatic [26][27][28] separation have been used during the last years for the beneficiation of REE. In a more global context and for a long time, China has accounted for more than 85% of the global rare-earth mining and production [14] and the 50% of reserves worldwide.…”