Objective and Scope and Importance of Mineral Beneciation with special reference to India. Mineral beneficiation is a process by which valuable constituents of an ore are concentrated by means of a physical separation process. The most common mineral beneficiation processes include: sample preparation, comminution, comminution, size classification, and concentration. •
Sample Preparation – drying, dewatering, and miing of samples
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!omminution – roc" size reduction by crushing and grinding
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Size !lassification – screening, de#sliming, cycloning
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$ravity !oncentration – separation eploiting the differences in specific gravity of minerals via the use of centrifugal concentrators, sha"ing tables, and spirals
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%roth %lotation – bul" flotation, differential flotation, etc.
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Magnetic separation
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&ptical Sorting – using advanced optical sorting technology
'eneficiation of minerals, also called mineral processing, implies processing of mineral resources to enhance its potential value to the benefit of the human"ind
Importance of mineral beneciation is:(. Zero waste technology# )t means that the waste generated from any mineral based industry should be (**+ utilised. %or eample, eample, Slag generated from iron and steel industry is used for producing slag • cement, rail road ballast, road ma"ing etc. ed mud generated from aluminium production can be used in land • reclamation, as a raw material in the manufacture of bric"s etc. -. To obtain desired size, grade, quality of minerals # . The mineral resources mined, or raw ores/, are not uniform in their composition of constituents, may be too coarse or unstable in size consist, and furthermore, in in many cases, too poor in grade to be utilized for sustaining our modern life. So various processes are needed to obtain the ore of desired size, grade and 0uality and hence, we have to spend etra cost and energy to recover only a small amount of refined metals from them. agglomeration are the techniques for obtaining the mineral of 1. Grinding and agglomeration desired size# $rinding is a process of size reduction and comes under comminution whereas agglomeration is a process of increase in the size of ores.
2. Utilisation of lean grade ore# 3et us ta"e the eample of a copper ore whose grade, or copper content, is only (+ by weight. 3et us assume that the single copper mineral species in this ore be chalcopyrite, whose chemical formula is !u%eS- !alculating from the atomic weights of these constituent elements, one part of copper entails 1.24 parts of chalcopyrite. Physical means of processing without chemical decomposition of chalcopyrite enables us to attain the copper concentrate whose ultimate copper grade is (51.24 6 *.-7 6 -7+. %or a range of practical reasons to be discussed below, this ultimate grade of copper concentrate cannot be attained. 8. Separating harmful or undesired minerals – 9s beneficiation of minerals, also called mineral processing, implies processing of mineral resources to enhance its potential value to the benefit of the human"ind. ence due to environmental concern removal of harmful minerals from ores became necessary. These mineral based industries possess great threat to the environment these are • • • • • • • • •
;eforestation ;egradation of land $roundwater pollution Pollution of rivers $eneration of dust 9ir pollution
;ue to these impacts of Mineral based industries,
Objective of Mineral beneciation is the environmental management This environmental management can be achieved by Sustainable deelopment ! To use the resources in such a way that it should sustain for the future generation. This sustainable development can be achieved by "eeping some of the following points –
(. "inimum utilisation of resources – esources are limited in nature and most of the resources are non# recyclable in nature. -. Use alternate sources or non-conentional sources of energy # Since resources are limited, so we have to rely mostly on alternate or non# conventional sources of energy. 1. #euse and recycle – =sing that resource which we can reuse and recycle. %or eample, steel is (**+ recyclable and is a better option than plastic. 2. Zero waste technology # )t means that the waste generated from any mineral based industry should be (**+ utilised. %or eample, • Slag generated from iron and steel industry is used for producing slag cement, rail road ballast, road ma"ing etc. • ed mud generated from aluminium production can be used in land reclamation, as a raw material in the manufacture of bric"s etc.
Scope of "ineral $eneficiation
ect being to eliminate either • •
=nwanted chemical species. Particles of unsuitable size or structure.
The first of these ob>ects is commonly considered to be the etent of ore dressing, and indeed the more important of the two. The principal steps involved in the preparation of mineral particles from a chemical standpoint are:# 3iberation of dissimilar particles from each other. Separation of chemically dissimilar particles. The principal steps involved in the preparation of mineral products valued for their physical structures are:# eduction in size. Separation of particles of dissimilar physical character Thus it will appear that in every instance mineral beneficiation involves a size reducing or liberating operation or group of operations as a first step and a separating operation or group of operations as a second step.
The above statement is not generalised as there are instances in which liberation and separation stages are made to alternate in order to accomplish the desired ends most advantageously.
