UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

CME 421 Mineral Processing
Assignment 3
Due: November 21, 2016
1. In a two-stage grinding circuit for an iron ore of the Bond Work Index (BWI) 11.0 KWh/t, the rod
mill treats 100 t/h of the iron ore assaying 41% Fe, reducing the particle sizes to 80% passing
2,500 m. The rod mill discharge is then treated by a magnetic separator with iron recovery of
95%. Afterwards, the magnetic product which remains the same particle size distribution as
magnetic separator feed is fed to a ball mill that connected to a hydrocyclone. The solid
percentage of hydrocyclone feed, underflow and overflow are 27.9%, 43.9% and 14.6%
respectively. And the solids in the hydrocyclone (classifier) overflow assays 46% Fe (note that
the contribution to the Fe assay from grinding balls is negligible).
a) The sieve analysis of hydrocyclone feed, underflow and overflow was used to plot the
partition curve, finding that the corrected partition value of the -148+105 m size interval
happens to be 50%. If 9.0% of the feed (solid) is in this size range, what is the percentage of
solid in underflow that is in this size range?
b) Assuming that the product of ball mill discharge follows Gaudin-Schuhmann particle size
distribution with an exponent of 0.29, determine the size (diameter and length) and the
number of ball mill (s) with wet overflow discharge, 35% volumetric ball loading and
operating at 71% critical speed.
Overflow
Rod mill

Hydrocyclone

Feed

Magnetic
separator

Non-magnetic
waste

Magnetic
product
Ball mill

2.

In an industrial screening operation, the screen aperture is set at 5 mm. If 40% of the particles
in the feed are larger than 5 mm, and after screening, 10% of the particles in the oversize
product are smaller than 5 mm, what is the screening efficiency defined by (Note: Screening
efficiency is defined as recovery of finished product (finer than screen aperture) into U/S
stream, assuming there is no broken meshes on the screen.)

3. A two-stage hydrocyclone circuit is used for cleaning 80 tonnes/hour of fine coal as illustrated in
the following figure.

Clean coal
Primary
Cyclone
Secondary
Cyclone

Circuit
Feed
Sump

Sump
Rejects

Dilution
Water

The circuit was sampled and the results were as follows:

Circuit Feed
Primary Cyclone Overflow (Clean Coal)
Secondary Cyclone Underflow (Rejects)

Percent Solids
(in slurry), %
12.5
10.0
33.3

a) Calculate tonnes/hour of clean coal produced by the circuit.

b) Calculate tonnes/hour Dilution water added to the sump.

Percent Ash
(in solids), %
25
10
70

4. True or False

No.
1
2
3
4
5

6
7

8
9
10

11

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Statements
Steel balls used as grinding medium in a ball mill are usually smaller in size for
coarse grinding than for fine grinding.
In a concentration circuit, rougher aims at maximizing the grade of concentrate
while the cleaner is designed to maximize the recovery of valuable.
More energy is required for dry grinding than for wet grinding.
Sieve bends which is suitable for separating fine particles and dewatering are
less accurate than vibrating screens in separating particles by sizes.
The main roles of vibration of screen include: providing stratification of the feed
materials and presenting the particles repeatedly to the apertures of screen
surface for passage.
The slopes of screen surfaces from the very top one to the bottom one in a
probability screens are decreasing.
Fine particles (smaller than screen aperture) reporting to the oversize fraction
will result in a deviation of cut size (or cut point, d50) from the screen aperture
size on screen partition curves.
Screening efficiency is defined as the recovery of oversize particles in the
undersize product.
Separation in classifiers is not strictly based on the size of particles because
particle density also affects the separation.
Considering that the larger vessels result in lower slime overflow velocity when
the flowrate is kept constant, the main reason to increase the size of the vessels
from beginning to the end is to give more time for the fine particles to settle.
The corrected cut size of a hydrocyclone (d50C) by subtracting the fraction of
particles which bypass the separation with the water is smaller than the
uncorrected cut size (d50).
Cyclone with smaller inside diameter is usually used for finer separation.
Higher fluid viscosity that generates higher fluid drag force is beneficial for fine
particles to be discharged from the apex of a hydrocyclone.
Both separation efficiency and degree of mineral liberation increase with
decreasing particle size.
Screen used prior to crushers is to increase the throughput and avoid overcrushing by by-passing the ores that already smaller than desired sizes.
Close circuit operation in crushing-screening is mainly to control the product
quality by returning the oversize particles to crusher.
Near mesh particles in screening refers to particles close to screen surface and
easily passing the aperture of screen.
Cut-size (d50) in sieving refers to particle size at which 50% particles retained on
the screen.
Banana screen optimizes screen throughput and screen efficiency by adopting a
screen surface of two different angles.
The abrasion in a hydrocyclone can be reduced by reducing the cyclone diameter.