Thursday 9 February 2012

The status of spirals in modern mineral processing plants

Some time ago (June 2009 and June 2010) I discussed the demise of the Reichert Cone, which was very popular as a gravity roughing device in the 1970s, but was made obsolete in the early 1980s by the introduction of high capacity, wash-waterless spirals.

In MEI's LinkedIn group Minerals Engineers, the question has been asked whether spirals are still being used in new mineral processing operations. Judging by the replies, they sure are, in applications including the beneficiation of heavy mineral sands, chromite, tantalite, iron ores and fine coal.

The spiral concentrator is one of the most effective, low-cost devices for the gravity beneficiation of ores, but I would like to know if anyone can advise us on recent developments in spiral concentration technology, and whether their use is limited to roughing operations, with cleaning undertaken in enhanced gravity devices?

2 comments:

  1. A question asked on the Minerals Engineers group: does anyone still use the Mozley MGS for concentration of fines?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Spiral with automated splitter/cutter control has been developed and tested in the US.

    ReplyDelete

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