The Preparation Work of Gravity Separation and its Working Process

To separate the particles based on their density, before the gravity separation, the ores must be fully crushed and grinded to separate the useful minerals and gangue minerals and reduce the granularity of the particles going to the gravity procedure. The ore particles must be screened and classified into different particle grades to go into different gravity machines. Smaller-sized particles will decrease the influence of the granularity on separation, separate the ore particles based on density, improve the productivity of the gravity separation equipment and reduce the argillization of the useful minerals in the separation process.

In the gravity separation process, the separation of minerals is completed step by step in the movement process. In other words, it is necessary to make the ore particles with different properties inside the gravity separation equipment have different movement states, including movement direction, speed, acceleration and movement locus, thus reaching the goal of separating the minerals. At the same time, the gravity separation process should be done in a certain medium. When the materials constituted by the ore particles with different granularity and density move inside the flow media, due to their different properties and the different flowing methods of the media, the ore particles will be influenced by different resistance and have different states of motion. Ore particle groups are difficult to disperse in the static media, and the ore particles with different density, granularity and shape are difficult to shift.

Regarding gravity separation, the media plays an important role. The media used in the gravity separation process include the air, water, heavy fluid and heavy suspension. Among them water is the most commonly used, and in the arid region short of water or processing some special ores, the air can be used as the medium, and this separation method is called pneumatic separation. Heavy fluid is the liquid whose density is bigger than that of water or aqueous solution with high density, and the minerals can be separated strictly according to the density. However, this kind of liquid is expensive, so that it is limited to laboratory use. Aqueous solution is a mixture made up of solid particles with high density and water.