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Lecture 11: Material Balance in Mineral Processing: F C T F C T

This document discusses material balances in mineral processing operations. It introduces the basic principles of material balance, including that input must equal output in a continuous steady state system. It also discusses how mineral processing separates an ore feed into a concentrate and tailings. Water balances and dilution ratios are also covered, showing how water is used in operations like hydrocyclones. An example calculation is provided to demonstrate how to determine recirculation load ratios. The document concludes by emphasizing the importance of material balances for flowsheet design and plant analysis.

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123 views4 pages

Lecture 11: Material Balance in Mineral Processing: F C T F C T

This document discusses material balances in mineral processing operations. It introduces the basic principles of material balance, including that input must equal output in a continuous steady state system. It also discusses how mineral processing separates an ore feed into a concentrate and tailings. Water balances and dilution ratios are also covered, showing how water is used in operations like hydrocyclones. An example calculation is provided to demonstrate how to determine recirculation load ratios. The document concludes by emphasizing the importance of material balances for flowsheet design and plant analysis.

Uploaded by

Sunday Paul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture11:Materialbalanceinmineralprocessing

Contents:
Preamble
Materialsbalance
Waterbalance(dilutionratio)
Illustration
Conclusion
References
Keywords:Materialbalance,ballmill,hydrocyclone,flotation.
Preamble
Animportantaspectofanymineralprocessingstudyisananalysisofhowmaterialisdistributed
wheneverstreamssplitandcombine.Thisknowledgeisnecessarywhenaflowsheetisbeingdesigned
andisalsoessentialwhenmakingstudiesofoperatingplants.
Inthislecturebasicsofmaterialbalanceinmineralprocessingisdiscussed.
Materialbalance
Itisbasedontheprincipleofconservationofmatter.Ingeneral
Inputoutput=accumulation(1)
Inacontinuoussystematsteadystate,thereisnoaccumulationandhence
Input=output
Inmineralprocessingoperations,singleinputoffeed(ore)producesaconcentratecontainingmostof
thevaluableandthetailingcontaininggangueminerals.Thus
Tonsoffeed MF
MC

MF

Tonsofconcentrate MC +andtonsoftailing MT (2)

MT (3)

Letfisfractionofmetalinfeed,candtarefractionofmetalinconcentrateandtailingrespectively,then
f MF

cMC

t M (4)

By3and4wecanobtain
M
M

MF
MC

Plantrecovery(R)is

MC
MF

(5)
100(6)

By5and6weget
R

100(7)

Inlectureonmeasurementsofquantitieswederivedtherelationshipbetweenpercentsolids % x
andpulpdensities,whenwaterisusedasamediumtomakethepulp,(pulpandslurryaresynonyms).
%x

(8)
density ofsolidand isdensityofslurry

Massflowrateofdrysolidsinpulp(slurry)
M

volumetric flow rate m hr andM

(9)

mass flow rate in kg/hr

kg/hr(10)

Waterbalance(Dilutionratio)
Waterisusedinmineralprocessing
a. Totransportsolidsinthecircuit
b. Toactasamediumforseparation
Ballmillsuse~35%waterformillingandinthedischargewaterisfurtheraddedforseparationinsolids
byweight.
Mostflotationoperationsareperformedinbetween25

40%solidsbyweight.

Somegravityconcentrationdevicesoperatemostefficientlyonslurrycontaining55

70%solids.

Roughly20m minofwaterisrequiredforaplanttreating10000tonsofore.
Twoproductformulaisofgreatuseinassessingwaterbalances.Intwoproductformula;feedis
dividedintwoproducts,namelyconcentrateandtailing.
Considerahydrocyclonefedwithaslurrycontainingf %solidsbyweightandproducingtwoproducts:
Underflowcontainingu%solidsbywt.andanoverflowcontainingv%solidsbyweight.
Considerweightofsolids/unitoftimeinfeed,underflowandoverflowarcMF , MU ,andMV respectively,
atequilibriumconditionsofoperation
MF

MU

MV (11)

Dilutionratioisdefinedas

Dilutionratiooffeed

u (12)

Dilutionratioofunderflow

Dilutionratioofoverflow

Waterbalanceonthecyclone:weightofwaterenteringthecyclonemustequaltheweightleavingin
twoproductsoutput
MF

MU u

M v (13)

By11and13weget
MU

(14)

MF

If%solidsareunknown,twoproductbalancecanbeperformedbyusingpulpdensitiesslurrydensities.
Abalanceofslurryweights
MF

MU

%V

(15)

Byequation8inthat% x
MF

MU

%solidsand15wegetaftersimplification
M

(16)

Onsimplifyingfurtherweget.
MU

(17)

MF

Inequation17, isdensityofslurryofunderflowand isdensityofslurryofoverflow.


Illustration
Considerseparationoffeedintounderflowandoverflowbyahydrocyclone.Feedis1000 tons/hrand
theunderflowis70%ofthefeed.Determinethecirculatingloadratio.
Inthehydrocycloneunderflowisrecirculated
Recirculatingloadratio

Materialbalancegivesmassofunderflow=700tonsandthatofoverflowis300tons.Everytime300
tonsisthefreshfeed.

2.33.

Recirculatingloadratio

Ifthefeedstreamslurrycontains35%solidsbyvolumeand40%ofthewaterisrecycled,calculate
concentrationofsolidsinhydrocycloneproducts.Densityofsolid 3.215 tons/m .
Hydrocycloneproducts:underflowandoverflow
Massbalancegives700tonsunderflowand300tonsoverflow
Volumeofsolidinfeed=volumeofsolidinunderflow+volumeofsolidinoverflow
.

311m

217.7m

93.3m

Volumeofwaterinfeed

311

578m .
0.4

Volumeofwaterinunderflow

578
.

Solidsconcentrationinunderflow
Volumeofwaterinoverflow

578

Solidsconcentrationinoverflow

231
.
.

231m
48.5%
347m .
100

21.2%

Conclusion
Inthislecturematerialbalanceinmineralprocessingisdiscussedthroughsomeproblems.Thereader
shouldalsogothroughthereferencesforthedetails.
References:
1. KellyandSpotiswood:introductiontomineralprocessing
2. Gaudin:Elementsoforedressing.

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