Mineral Dressing

Mineral dressing (= Ore beneficiation)

The first process most ores undergo
after they leave the mine is mineral
dressing (processing), also called ore
preparation or ore dressing or ore
beneficiation.

Ore dressing is a process of

mechanically separating the grains of
ore minerals from the gangue
minerals, to produce a concentrate
(enriched portion) containing most of
the ore minerals and a tailing
(discard) containing the bulk of the
gangue minerals.
General Mineral Processing Flowsheet
Characteristic of mineral
Minerals are homogeneous in physical and chemical composition.

Minerals shows isomorphism (atomic structure do not change )(with the same atomic
structure but different chemical formulas).Example- olivine [(Mg,Fe)2SiO4 ]At the
high temperatures and pressures found at depth within the Earth the olivine structure
is no longer stable. Below depths of about 410 km (250 mi) olivine undergoes an
exothermic phase transition to the sorosilicate, wadsleyite and, at about 520 km
(320 mi) depth, wadsleyite transforms exothermically into ringwoodite, which has
the spinel structure. At a depth of about 660 km (410 mi), ringwoodite decomposes
into silicate perovskite ((Mg,Fe)SiO3) and ferropericlase ((Mg,Fe)O) in an
endothermic reaction. The pressure at which these phase transitions occur depends on
temperature and iron content.

Mineral also shows polymorphism (different crustal structure) same chemical

composition but different physical properties.
Example – graphite and diamond
Mineral Vs Ore:
Ore is natural aggregates of minerals from which a metal or metallic
compound can be extracted economically and profitably.
All ores can be minerals but all mineral cannot be an ore.
Ore is mixture of extractable mineral and extraneous rocky materials described
as gangue.
The minimum metal content required for a deposit to qualify as an ore varies
from metal to metal.

Rock vs mineral:
Chalk, clay, granite(igneous rock),coal are rocks there are not come under
definition of minerals because they are not physically and chemically
homogeneous.
Rocks generally consists of variety of minerals.
The minimum metal content required for a deposit to qualify as an ore
varies from metal to metal:
Many non ferrous ore contains only 1% metals or some times less then
it.
Gold can be recovered profitable from an ore containing 1 ppm level of
metals.
Iron containing less then 45 % percent in an ore is said to be low grade.
Every ton of material deposited have Contained value – depend upon
metal content and current price of the contained metal.
Ore types : on the basis of nature of valuable mineral
native ore – metal is present in native form
sulphide ore- metal is present in sulphide form
oxide ore- metal is in form of oxide
sulphate ore- metal is in form of sulphate
Silicate ore – metal is in form of silicate
carbonate ore- metal is in form of carbonate
hydrated form
Hydroxide
complex ore- those ore which contains profitable amount of more than one
valuable mineral.
Ore types : on the basis of nature of their gangues
Calcareous or basic – lime rich
Siliceous or acidic – silica rich
What constitutes mineral beneficiation?
Ore is an aggregate of minerals and contains valuable and gangue minerals .
The mineral beneficiation involves separation of gangue minerals from ore.
It has three steps
Liberation ,
Separation,
Concentration.
1) Liberation of valuable mineral by size reduction.
2) Separation of coarse and fine particles.
3) Concentration to separate the gangue minerals to increase the metal grade.
If the first step is not done correctly, the second step will be incomplete.
Liberation by size reduction
Consider a cube ( 10 cm dia. )of the ore having MINERAL and
GANGUE.
Suppose it has cubic grains of 10 mm.
Assumptions
1.crushing is conducted to yield grains of same size.
2.crystals in the ore are intimately joined with each other.

Till the ore lump is crushed to 10 mm dia., all grains are locked.

If the ore lump is crushed to particles of 5 mm dia., some grains

are FREE and some are LOCKED.

It cannot be assumed that all particles are free since they are of 5
mm dia. ( smaller than 10 mm dia.).
Minerals of equal abundance
The cube is sectioned along a vertical plane. Visualize that lattices with
parameters 10mm and 5 mm are superimposed with their axes parallel.

It appears that , in the plane of section, alternate rows ‘A’ and ‘C’ only
have “free looking” particles. Other alternate rows ‘B’ and ‘D’ do not
have them.

The free particles are 1,3,5,13,15,17. ( They may be locked in other planes
). Free particles of mineral and gangue – 6 out of 48 (1/8) ( and not 6 out
of 24).

Degree of liberation of each constituent- 3 out of 24 (1/8).

Even with heavy overgrinding, particles cannot be liberated

completely. The crushed particles are obtained in the form of
LOCKED MIDDLINGS.
MINERALS OF UNEQUAL ABUNDANCE
The two constituents are not equally abundant.
1.The less abundant mineral is not free at all unless the particles are
finer than the grain size.
2.To free the less abundant mineral, the particles must be made
much finer than the grain size.
3.The more abundant mineral is always freer than the less
abundant mineral.

Bauxite

LIBERATION BY DETACHMENT.
If the ore lump is made of mineral grains bonded loosely, fracturing to the grain size
results in complete liberation.
Eg: Pebble phosphate rock

MOSTLY LIBERATION NEEDS SIZE REDUCTION.