An investigation on laboratory Knelson Concentrator separation performance: Part 3: Multi-component feed separation modelling

In the previous study, mathematical models were proposed to describe the mass of the valuable component and quartz recovered in a Knelson Concentrator bowl based on experiments conducted on two-component synthetic feeds. In continue, a series of experiments were done on multi-component synthetic feeds which were a mixture of five valuable components (i.e., magnetite, zinc, copper, lead and tungsten) and quartz to obtain a general recovery models. In this part, the results of material characterization, details of experimental protocol and finally multi-component recovery models will be presented which are based on material properties and operating condition parameters. The observed results indicate that the best operating condition to obtain maximum recovery of valuable component and highest grade of concentrate is at values higher than 250 for F-d/(F-c-F-b)(Q).