Recovery of heavy minerals from slimes

Development of various slime gravity equipment is traced and the merits and demerits of these are discussed and compared.The significance of the design and operational variables and their interrelationships are examined. Emphasis is placed upon the necessity to selectively modify the particle surfaces in order to achieve selective aggregation in conjunction with selective dispersion, in slime gravity concentration. The significance of the deck roughness and the insignificance of the viscosity under the conditions which would normally prevail in slime gravity processes are noted.The possibility of having slime gravity circuits for feeds with a top size of about 45–53 μm only is stressed and selected examples of plant flowsheets are given.