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.