Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) / Acid Rock Drainage (ARD)
Acid Rock Drainage as a concern and part of all metals and mining operations. ARD is often mislabelled AMD or Acid Mine Drainage too. So, to better understand AMD and ARD, let’s begin by defining some terms like pH -The standard measure of acidity. The pH scale actually measures hydrogen ion concentration in water solutions. […]
Variables for Concentrate Humidity: Dryer Heat and Feed Cake Moisture
This last set of operating variables is very basic. There are only two, the PERCENTAGE of MOISTURE that is in the concentrate as it goes into the drier, (your filter cake humidity) and the TEMPERATURE that the drier is heated to. It is very evident that the wetter the concentrate the longer that it will […]
Filtrate Pump & Vacuum Filter Pumps
The last equipment that I want to talk about that is part of the filtering system is the FILTRATE PUMP and the VACUUM PUMP. The filtrate pump is the pump that removes the water that is filtered out of the concentrate. It works with the filter and vacuum pump in a circuit. How these […]
Slurry Filtering & Concentrate Filtration
The purpose of a vacuum filter is “Slurry Filtering” and therefore to remove more of the water from the concentrate, this “Concentrate Filtration” is accomplished by using a vacuum. Again for your understanding of the method you will have to know something about the design of a filtering system and of course the filter itself. […]
Thickener Torque -Rakes & Drive
A little earlier I talked about the rakes of the thickener, these are long arms that extend off of the bottom of the DRIVE SHAFT. As the shaft turns the rakes will sweep the entire bed of the thickener thereby applied Torque. Each rake arm is higher at its far end than it is where […]
Thickener Operating pH and Lime for Flocculation & Improved Settling
If, for some reason, the thickener’s settling rate is too slow, as in the case of the grind being so fine or you are dealing with clay rich ore and now the concentrate stays in suspension. The thickener could be “sliming” and will produce a dirty overflow combined with a low density underflow. If this is […]
Feeding a Thickener for Good Settling and Underflow Density & Overflow Clarity
How much you feed a thickener and how/where you feed it will determine how well slurry or concentrate settles it it as well as the level of ease or difficulty you will have at obtaining a good underflow density and overflow clarity. By using the head assay of the concentrator, and the metallurgical test results […]
Concentrate Thickener Operation
In mining, when flotation is finished with the ore, and a final concentrate has been produced, often, both products will go to a concentrate thickener before it is dried for shipping. This is a very important step so here we discuss Basic Concentrate Thickener Operation. For the mine to get its concentrate to the smelter it […]
Settling and Thickening Test Procedure
The choice of Settling and Thickening test method and procedure depends to some extent upon the temperature of the pulp, its flocculating characteristics, the required supernatant clarity, and the equipment available. The Long Tube Method may be used for all materials which settle without a clearly defined interface. However, where the feed in question is well flocculated, either […]
GOLDIX
Discuss Goldix 1, 2 and 3