NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ECE 3103 – MINERALS PROCESSING
TUTORIAL 04 – 10/10/2024
Qn.1.
a) What are the principles of gravity separation?
b) Discuss the benefits of ore concentration/beneficiation.
Qn. 2.
With the aid of a well annotated diagram describe in detail the stages involved in a jigging cycle.
Qn. 3.
A plant has a simple circuit layout with a rougher and a cleaner bank (there is no scavenger
bank). The feed to the circuit enters the roughers, with the tails of the rougher circuit going to
the final tails. The concentrate from the rougher bank feeds the cleaner bank. The cleaner
bank’s concentrate is the final concentrate and its tails are recycled back to the rougher feed.
a) Sketch the circuit and label the flotation banks and streams.
The feed to the circuit is a 2000 t/hr and the grade of the nickel in the circuit feed is 4.6%. The
recovery of nickel in the rougher bank is 85% and in the cleaner bank the recovery is 62%.
b) Calculate the overall recovery for the circuit?
Given that the recovery of gangue in each of the two banks is 10%.
c) What is the final concentrate grade?
Qn. 4.
A copper flotation circuit is used to concentrate 100 tonnes/hr of ore; valuable mineral is
chalcopyrite containing 34.6% copper (s.g 4.2) with a siliceous gangue (s.g 2.6). The circuit
layout is shown below (Fig. B2):
Fig. B2 Flotation circuit
The following streams were sampled and the following results were obtained (Table B2):
Table B2 Results
Stream % solids by weight % Cu
Circuit feed 33.3 0.5
Rougher concentrate 50 13.89
Final concentrate 40 25
Cleaner tailings 8.62 5
Final tailings 31.2 0.1016
Using the above data carry out a material balance and calculate the following:
i) The copper recovery in (1) the circuit
(2) the cleaners
(3) the roughers
ii) The tonnes/hr of dilution water added to the cleaners
iii) The tonnes/hr of final concentrate produced
Qn. 5.
(i) Collectors are types of reagents used in froth flotation to render mineral surfaces
hydrophobic. Illustrate how collectors achieve this effect.
(ii) Given below is a list of other types reagents that are used in froth flotation, describe
and explain the use of each type of reagent. Give two examples of each type of reagent.
- Frothers
- Activators
- Depressants
- pH modifiers
Qn. 6.
25 t/h of ore containing 5% lead is fed to a bank of flotation cells. A high-grade concentrate is
produced, assaying 45% lead. The high-grade tailings assay 0.7% lead, and feed the low-grade
cells, which produce a concentrate grading 7% lead. The low-grade tailings contain 0.2% lead.
Calculate the weight of high- and low-grade concentrates produced per hour, and the recovery
of lead produced in the bank of cells.
Qn. 7.
Given an ore containing copper, lead and zinc sulphides (plus pyrite). The copper and lead
should be floated first together, followed by the zinc. The copper/lead concentrate from the first
stage is re-ground and then separated by flotation. Pyrite is not desirable but it can be
processed conveniently in the copper smelter.
(i) Sketch the flotation circuit for the given operation, clearly label all process streams.
(ii) Use your knowledge of flotation chemistry to specify the reagents and pH required at each
stage.
Qn. 8.
A concentrator processes 800 tons of material during an 8-hour shift, assaying 1.2g/t Au, to
produce a concentrate of 85g/t Au, and tailing of 0.23g/t Au.
(i) Estimate the tonnage (tph) of concentrate and tailings.
(ii) Calculate the recovery of Au into the concentrate.
Qn.9.
An iron ore sample is concentrated using gravity concentrator and a magnetic separator. The
feed is initially fed to the gravity concentrator at a rate of 100tonnes/hr, and the tailings from
the gravity concentrator are fed to a re-grind ball mill and the mill product is fed to a magnetic
separator. The concentrate streams from the gravity concentrator and the magnetic separator
are combined to give the final concentrate, while the tailings stream from the magnetic
separator is the final tailings. The final tailings assay 13.2% Fe while the final concentrate is
64.8% Fe.
(i) Draw a flowsheet of the process, clearly label the streams.
(ii) Calculate the Fe recovery to the final concentrate if the feed grade is 34.5% Fe?
(ii) If 70% of the Fe is recovered to the gravity concentrate at a grade of 66.4% Fe, what is the
concentrate grade and Fe recovery to the magnetic concentrate?
(iii) Determine the Fe content of the gravity concentrator tailing.
Qn. 10.
Collectors are reagents used to render minerals hydrophobic, with the aid of a diagram explain
how collectors achieve this. Give two examples of collectors used in the mineral processing
industry.
