Gravity separation
Gravity separation
Gravity separation is one of the oldest separation methods, but is still the prime option when processing very dense minerals. It also serves as a supplement to flotation and magnetic separation and has the advantage of not requiring any chemicals. The development of centrifugal separators has increased the capacity of gravity separation as well as its operational size range (permitting separation below 50 µm).
The Mineral Processing Laboratory is equipped with both gravitational and centrifugal separators, including a pilot scale shaking table and spiral, two smaller shaking tables, Knelson centrifuges (batch mode), a Kelsey jig and a small Mozely Multi-gravity Separator. The shaking tables facilitates immediate visual assessment of the separation performance and can also be used as a tool to evaluate the potential for gravity separation on a specific ore, or to accurately separate narrow density fractions for analytical purposes.
A selection of the equipment is presented below:
| Equipment | Type | D/W | Mode | Capacity | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INSMART SYSTEMS SPIRAL | GRAVITATIONAL | WET | CONTINUOUS | 0-50 kg/h | Pilot |
| SUPERDUTY DIAGONAL DECK SHAKING TABLE | GRAVITATIONAL | WET | CONTINUOUS | 0-100 kg/h | Pilot |
| OUTOTEC LAB SHAKING TABLE | GRAVITATIONAL | WET | CONTINUOUS | 0-10 kg/h | Lab |
| MOZLEY LABORATORY MINERAL SEPARATOR (SHAKING TABLE) | GRAVITATIONAL | WET | BATCH | 100 g | Lab |
| KNELSON KC-MD3 | CENTRIFUGAL | WET | BATCH | 200 g | Lab |
| KNELSON KC-MD7.5 | CENTRIFUGAL | WET | BATCH | 2 kg | Lab |
| GEOLOGICS KELSEY JIG J200 | CENTRIFUGAL | WET | CONTINUOUS | 0-50 kg/h | Pilot |
| MOZLEY C900 MULTI-GRAVITY SEPARATOR | CENTRIFUGAL | WET | CONTINUOUS | 0-50 kg/h | Lab |