Mineral Processing
Mineral processing, art of treating crude ores and mineral products in order to separate the valuable minerals from the waste rock, or gangue. It is the first process that most ores undergo after mining in order to provide a more concentrated material for the procedures of extractive metallurgy.
Comminution
In order to separate the valuable components of an ore from the waste rock, the minerals must be liberated from their interlocked state physically by comminution. As a rule, comminution begins by crushing the ore to below a certain size and finishes by grinding it into powder. Crushing is done mostly under dry conditions, grinding mills can be operated both dry and wet, with wet grinding being predominant.
Crushing
Grinding
Separation
Some ores occur in nature as mixtures of discrete mineral particles. Most ores, however, are made up of hard, tough rock masses that must be crushed before the valuable minerals can be released.
In this process stage, the crushed material can be further disintegrated in a cylinder mill, which is a cylindrical container built to varying lengthtodiameter ratios, mounted with the axis substantially horizontal, and partially filled with grinding bodies
This stage is the process of separating solids into two or more products on basis of their size. This can be done dry or wet. Neither crushers nor grinding mills are too precise in their size reduction job and a lot of size fractions are misplaced.
Screening
Classification
Concentration
Ore is an impure metal containing large amount of sand and rocky material. The impurities like sand, rocky materials, limestone, mica etc present in the ore is called gangue or matrix.
Classification is defined as a method of separating mixtures of mineral particles into two or more products according to their settling velocities in water, in air or in other fluids.
This stage is the process of separating solids into two or more products on basis of their size. This can be done dry or wet. Neither crushers nor grinding mills are too precise in their size reduction job and a lot of size fractions are misplaced.
