Mineral Processing 345 Tutorial
Particle sizing, liberation and comminution theory (Week 5)
1) The particle size density distribution of the ore fed to a mill is given in the table
below. Estimate the 80% passing particle size of the mill feed.
Size class (µm) Mass fraction in size class (ΔF)
+1700 0.04
-1700+1180 0.12
-1180+850 0.26
-850+600 0.24
-600+425 0.18
-425+300 0.1
-300 0.06
2) You are the metallurgist at a concentrator plant which processes ore to recover
rutile (TiO2) from an alluvial deposit. You have the data in the table below
available. Calculate what percentage of the solids in the tailings is larger than
150 µm. You may assume that no particle breakage occurs during concentration.
Feed Concentrate Tailings
Mass % of solids +150 µm 61.3 17.9 ?
Mass % of solids -150 µm 38.7 82.1 ?
Overall grade, %TiO2 5.31 65.79 0.572
3) Figure 1 shows a diagram of a closed milling circuit. Slurry with a density of 1790
kg/m3 is fed to the circuit as stream 1; the dry ore flow rate in stream 1 is 100 t/h,
and the ore has a density of 3100 kg/[Link] ore particles in the respective
streams are classified in three classes based on particle size; the three classes
and size distribution for stream 1 are listed in Table 1. The mill product (stream 3)
is fed to a cyclone for classification; the classification information is provided in the
table. The underflow (coarse particles, stream 5) is recycled and combined with
the fresh feed to make up the total mill feed (stream 2), while the overflow stream
(stream 4) represents the fine particles. Stream 4 reports to the conditioning tank
where water is added (stream 6) before being delivered as product to the
downstream concentrator plant. Information about breakage behaviour in the mill
is provided in the table; the values of the selection and breakage functions are
based on the residence time for the specific circuit.
Tutorial - Week 5
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a) Calculate the total ore mass flow rate in the recycle (cyclone underflow)
stream.
b) Over time, mill liner wear causes the breakage function values b21 and b31 to
change from 0.65 and 0.35 to 0.85 and 0.15, respectively. Will this cause the
flow rate of the recycle stream to increase or to decrease? Motivate/explain
your answer using qualitative arguments.
c) Calculate the required water addition rate to the conditioning tank if
downstream operations require stream 7 to contain 50 % ore by weight.
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3
-212 + 150 µm -150 + 106 µm -106 + 75 µm
Mass Fraction in fresh 0.6 0.35 0.05
feed (stream 1)
Percentage of particles 10 30 95
in specific size class in
the cyclone feed that
reports to stream 4.
Selection function Sj 0.8 0.5 0
Breakage function
B(1,j) 0 0 0
B(2,j) 0.65 0 0
B(3,j) 0.35 1 0
1 2 Mill 3 Cyclone 4 Conditioning
Tank
7
4) The feed material to a ball mill is from a deposit with a Bond work index of
14 kWh/t and F80 of 20 mm. Use the Bond equation to calculate the energy
consumption (kW) for an ore flowrate of 250 t/h and a P80 of 2 mm. (The flowrate is
specified in the same ton unit as the ton unit used for the Bond work index.)
5) A uranium ore deposit (18% by mass U) can be exploited economically if 20% of
the uranium bearing mineral can be liberated in an existing milling circuit (shown
below) before being sent to the concentrator. The particle size density distribution
of the overflow product from the hydrocyclone in the milling circuit is given in the
table below (larger size fractions report to the underflow).
Tutorial - Week 5
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Cyclone overflow product (larger size fractions report to the underflow)
Size class Mesh (μm) Mass fraction in class i
1 +150-212 0.0097
2 +106-150 0.0714
3 +75-106 0.2664
4 +53-75 0.6525
The only uranium-bearing mineral in the deposit is metastudtite (UO4.2H2O).
Analysis of the linear intercept lengths of the metastudtite in the material is given
below. The intercept length of the first fraction can be estimated as an arithmetic
mean; use geometric averages for the remainder of the fractions.
Intercept length, lm (μm) F (cumulative mass fraction shorter than lm)
15 0.1
17 0.2
20 0.3
24 0.4
29 0.5
36 0.6
45 0.7
57 0.8
73 0.9
93 1
Determine if the deposit can be exploited economically.
Tutorial - Week 5
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