Introduction to Four Types of Ore Dressing Operation

Ore dressing process is the preparatory work of smelting. After mining of ores, above all, metallic elements like iron, copper, aluminium, manganese should be separated from ores, which makes preparation for the next smelting process. Ore dressing process includes crushing, grinding and separation process. Among them, crushing process is divided into primary crushing, secondary crushing and tertiary crushing. There are different separation methods: magnetic separation, gravity concentration, flotation, etc. The aim of ore dressing process is to improve the grade of ores.

Ore dressing can involve four general types of unit operation: comminution – particle size reduction; sizing – separation of particle sizes by screening or classification; concentration by taking advantage of physical and surface chemical properties; and dewatering – solid/liquid separation.

1. Comminution is particle size reduction of materials. Comminution may be carried out on either dry materials or slurries. Crushing and grinding are the two primary comminution processes. Crushing is normally carried out on “run-of-mine” ore, while grinding (normally carried out after crushing) may be conducted on dry or slurried material.

2. Sizing is the general term for separation of particles according to their size. The simplest sizing process is screening, or passing the particles to be sized through a screen or number of screens. Classification refers to sizing operations that exploit the differences in settling velocities exhibited by particles of different size.

3. There are a number of ways to increase the concentration of the wanted minerals: in any particular case the method chosen will depend on the relative physical and surface chemical properties of the mineral and the gangue.

4. Dewatering is an important process in mineral processing. The purpose of dewatering is to remove water contained in particles. This is done for a number of reasons, specifically, to enable ore handling and concentrates to be transported easily, allow further processing to occur and to dispose of the gangue.

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