REDESIGNING THE INDUSTRY STANDARDA NEW LOOK AT THE WET CONCENTRATOR CIRCUIT 107

Introduction
Comparing the design of motorcars produced by a well-
known manufacturer to the design of a mineral sands wet
concentrator plant may initially seem a little far-fetched but
there are some striking similarities.
It took Mercedes over 100 years to move from the
original mechanized coach style of car to the modern sleek
(depending on your opinion) style that is familiar on our
roads. Similar to the development of a wet plant
concentrator flowsheet, there are some small changes in
technology along the way, but the essence of vehicle design
has remained unchanged for long periods of time, with
occasional flourishes, which may or may not survive and
very occasionally make a significant step change in design.
The mineral sand industry has in some ways mirrored this
type of developmental trend over the history of mineral
sands processing. From the original mining dredges, which
were little more than floating pumps, to the majestic
4500 tph dredges currently mining north of Richards bay,
and from spirals based on Humphrey coal separators and
Reichert cones, mineral sand separation has crept a little
and step changed to the modern process circuitry on
operating wet concentrators across the globe.
Five-stage circuit
The wet plant concentrators (WPC) at Richards Bay
Minerals (RBM) have moved through various combinations
of spiral circuitry:
Mining Pond Alpha was originally a three-stage circuit,
upgraded in 1999 to a five-stage circuit, but with MG1,
MG3 and the odd bank of Multotec spirals retained
from the old plant to perform the primary separation
function. The upgrade of this circuit has been
completed with the introduction of the MG5F spiral in
primary duty.
Mining Pond Bravo ended its operational life with half
the primary circuit operating with Reichert cones,
Multotec spirals in the other half of the primary duty
and in the scavenger circuit, and Roche spirals
elsewhere.
GRACIE, S. Redesigning the industry standarda new look at the wet concentrator circuit. The 7th International Heavy Minerals Conference What next,
The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2009.
Redesigning the industry standarda new look at the wet
concentrator circuit
S. GRACIE
Richards Bay Minerals
The aim of this project was to redesign the wet plant concentrator (WPC) to achieve a 95 per cent
recovery of economic heavy mineral (EHM) irrespective of the quality of the feed material.
To give some indication of the required project improvement, the current mining operation
achieved an EHM recovery of the order of 93 per cent with Mining Pond Echo (MPE), which is
the flagship of Richard Bay Minerals (RBM) achieving the highest recovery.
Although MPE can achieve significantly higher recovery than the other WPCs, it has also been
shown to experience a reduction in recovery when processing feed material with head feed grades
lower than 2 per cent EHM.
In these instances, a drop in recovery of up to 2 per cent is not uncommon, but the losses at the
other WPC can be as much as 4 per cent.
The operation of the current WPC circuit is generally well understood in that the areas of
mineral loss are well defined:
Primary circuitthe tails losses are at relatively low grade, but high tonnage
Cleaner circuitthe tails losses are at a relatively low tonnage, but high grade.
Traditionally, these losses would be of a similar magnitude and would therefore both offer an
opportunity to improve the overall performance.
During this project, an alternative spiral was tested in the primary duty, an additional circuit was
introduced (cleaner scavenger) to treat recirculating loads in the cleaner circuit, and a wet drum
magnetic separator was introduced to process the tails from this new circuit.
Pilot testing of this circuit indicated the potential to achieve greater than 95 per cent EHM
recovery on run of mine (ROM) material sourced from an area known to have a high content of
epidotes, amphiboles and pyroxenes. On low grade feed, the redesigned circuit achieved an EHM
recovery of 94 per cent which is marginally below the project target, but an improvement on
current operational achievements.
The outcomes of this project present two options to RBM:
Based on a suitable business case, the retrofitting of some or all the process changes to
the current WPC
An alternate WPC design for potential future mining plants.
HEAVY MINERALS 2009 108
Mining Pond Charlie, currently undergoing an upgrade
had previously decommissioned the scavenger
middlings circuit and used the available circuitry in
the cleaner tails duty.
Mining Pond Delta, home of the MG2 spiral primary
circuit, has also decommissioned the scavenger
middlings circuit and used the infrastructure as
scavengers.
Mining Pond Echo (MPE), the flag ship of Richards
Bay minerals, has also seen some changes in its 10
years of operations, with the scavenger middlings
decommissioned and retuned as cleaner tails. This
change was possible due to the efficiency of the
MG5F
1
spirals in both primary and scavenger duty.
As the flagship, and hence benchmark of RBM, any new
design would have at least to match the mineral processing
capability of MPE.
The development of the five-stage circuit at RBM, over
32 years, through a combination of tweaks and upgrades
has moved from the Reichert cones and Wright
2
helical
spirals to the current circuits comprising various Downer
Edi spirals. A schematic of the circuit is shown in Figure 1.
Five-stage circuit performance
How well does this circuit perform? Historically, the five-
stage circuit has coped very well, achieving an average
Economic Mineral (EHM) recovery of 93 per cent on
orebodies of variable grade and quality at design
throughput. However, it has been long understood that there
are two areas of the circuit, namely primary tailings and
cleaner tails, tailings where addressing losses would result
in improved recovery.
In addition, this five-stage circuit has also been shown to
underperform when processing very low-grade feed,
usually when the low grade is combined with increased mid
density minerals content The average EHM recovery when
processing low head feed grade varies between 2 and 3 per
cent below expected recovery.
The particular area of concern under these conditions is
the recirculating loads on the cleaner spirals: i.e. bringing
the middlings back to the cleaner and the recirculation of
the Cleaner tails concentrate to the cleaners. The effect of
the recirculating loads is to retain the non-valuable mid
density minerals species in circulation. Ultimately, the
operational solution is to dump the cleaner tails feed to
tails, thereby freeing up the circuit capacity but at some
recovery loss.
Further, if the new technology could be introduced that
would reduce the physical size of the WPC this would have
significant benefits in terms of capital costs. The capital
cost saving associated with the use of new model spirals
and better WPC configuration has been estimated at 15%
1
Redesigning the five-stage circuit
What then are the requirements that must be achieved with
the redesign of the five-stage circuit?
Capable of achieving >95 per cent recovery on any feed
grade/feed quality
Mid density minerals rejection
Address recirculating issues
Simple robust technology
Reduction in plant size.
The beginning
Just as most car redesigns are more likely to be updates of
the current technology, maintaining what works and
rejecting what does not, the same approach can be applied
to redesigning the five-stage circuit.
What works, and what does not work is most easily
identified by benchmarking against MPE, which is capable
of high mineral recovery, and then addressing those
problem areas. The first stage in the process is then to
identify the function and behaviour of the recovery stages
of the MPE circuit, identify shortfalls, and investigate
technology which would mitigate these issues.
Primary circuit
The primary (rougher circuit) is designed to achieve
maximum recovery, with the lowest yield possible. In
operational terms, the cut to concentrate is generous (up to
10 per cent); approximately 30 per cent reports to middlings
for treatment through the scavengers and 60 per cent reports
to tailings. With the tailings running at a grade of 0.12 per
cent (>40 000 tpa EHM) this is a loss worth addressing.
The problem in processing the tails stream in a
conventional minerals sands approach would require a
physically large circuit, capable of processing 60 per cent of
the head feed mass, but containing a low concentration of
EHM. The better solution is to find an alternate processing
technology for the primary and/or scavenger (middlings)
circuits.
The mineral sands processed by RBM have been shown
by analysis of sized fractions to contain no EHM in the
+250 m fraction, suggesting that screening may provide an
option for the primary circuit. Although scoping work
suggested that the recovery achieved was worth further
investigating, this technology could be best compared to
some of the concept cars manufacturers put on display at
motor shows to generate interest in their usual production
cars.
There is merit to screening technology in mineral sands
separation but due to some logistical constraints, further
investigation has been postponed to a later date. Screening
may become part of the standard production unit in the
future.
The approach to addressing the primary circuit is
therefore to look at similar technology, with improved
capability and other advantages. In this instance, the
technology investigated was alternate spirals, namely the
Downer EDI HC1
3
and an spiral from another supplier.
Figure 1. Schematic of five stage circuit
REDESIGNING THE INDUSTRY STANDARDA NEW LOOK AT THE WET CONCENTRATOR CIRCUIT 109
The Downer EDI HC1 was selected to test work based on
its use in the Tiomin mineral sands project
3
, the
manufacturers product leaflet, and discussions around the
units potential.
Testing the spirals in direct comparison to each other
indicates that the HC1 operating at 6 tph per start
*
achieves
comparable performance to the standard MG5F operating at
1.8 tph per start and also outperforms the Other supplier
spiral, which was designed to treat up to 3 tph per start. The
recovery values are indicated in Table I.
The yield to product numbers indicated in Table I are
the total mass yield to concentrate and middlings.
The ability to recover effectively is offset by the ability to
reject effectively. In order to standardize this measure, three
of the more common mid density minerals will be
considered. For RBM, these three minerals would be
amphiboles, pyroxenes and epidotes, which combined
constitute approximately 4.5 per cent of head feed. The
mineral grouping and density are given in Table II.
In order to ensure that difficult separation conditions
would be experienced, a sample was specifically sourced
that contained a higher content of these mineral species.
This sample was identified from work undertaken by
Boshoff and Gracie
4
and contained double the quantity of
mid density minerals.
Considering the same test conditions as indicated in
Table I, the summary of recovery of mid density minerals is
reflected in Table III.
HC1 Performance
Figure 2 illustrates the ability of the HC1 to separate by
mineral density. It can be seen from the graph that the
recovery of more dense minerals such as zircon and
ilmenite, occurs predominately between the two concentrate
cuts and the first middlings cut. Recovery of the lighter
minerals in these cuts is relatively low.
The mid density minerals, as would be expected, are
mostly recovered in the mids 1, 2 and tails 1 cuts.
It should be noted that the test HC1 was fitted with a
mouth organ product splitter so it was not possible to
optimize the cons/middlings cutter position or the
middlings /tailings cutter position.
Based on the test results for recovery of EHM and
rejection of the mid density minerals, the HC1 is considered
to be a potential replacement for the MG5F spiral.
High grade feed Low grade feed
Recovery (%) MG5f HC1 (6 tph) HC1 (3 tph) 0ther spiral (3 tph) HC1
Ilmenite 98.6 99.16 99.76 99.44 98.47
Rutile 99.48 99.21 96.81 97.3 94.25
Zircon 99.55 98.92 99.58 99.6 96.56
Yield to product 51 56 53 51 25
Mineral Grouping Density
Amph_Fe_Actinolite 3.30
Amph_Mg_Horneblende Amphibole 3.23
Amph_Act_Horneblende 3.30
Px_Augite 3.29
Px_Estatite Pyroxene 3.40
Px_Fe_Pigeonite 3.38
Ep_Epidote Epidote 3.49
High grade feed Low grade feed
Recovery (%) MG5f HC1 (6 tph) HC1 (3 tph) 0ther Spiral (3 tph) HC1
Amphibole 53 53 65 73 31
Pyroxene 63 62 77 82 23
Epidote 61 54 75 81 30
Figure 2. Mineral recovery for HC1 spiral
Table I
Comparison of mineral recovery
*Feed rates were selected based on manufacturers product brochure and pilot plant capacity
Table III
Comparison of mineral recovery
Table II
Common mid density minerals
*
Feed rates were selected based on manufacturers product brochure and
pilot-plant capacity
HEAVY MINERALS 2009 110
With the advantage of increased throughput, the physical
size of the concentrator will be reduced as the loading rate
increases from 9 t/m
2
for the MG5F to 17 t/m
2
for the HC1,
halving the required footprint for the primary circuit.
The scavenger circuit
The scavenger circuit does not account for a significant loss
but as the HC1 represents a viable alternate to the MG5F in
the primary duty, it may also present a viable option in the
scavenger duty

.
Testing of the HC1 as a scavenger, processing MG5F
middlings indicates that the HC1 may have some potential
as a scavenger, but the true test would be scavenging on
HC1 middlings. Testing the HC1 simultaneously in the
primary and scavenger duty was not possible as only one
unit was available. (Table IV.)
The HC1 has demonstrated capability as a scavenger.
The cleaner circuit
The feed to the cleaner circuit is a combination of four
streams:
Primary concentrate
Scavenger concentrate
Re-circulated cleaner middlings
Cleaner tails concentrate.
Due to the recirculation of the cleaner middlings back to
cleaner feed and the recirculation of cleaner tails
concentrate back to cleaner feed, addressing the problem
areas in this instance requires a multistep programme.
The function of the cleaner circuit is to produce a
concentrate that complies with prescribed parameters. As a
consequence of grade control, losses are inevitable, which
is why the cleaner tailings are provided with an additional
stage to recover any lost mineral.
However, if the feed quality to the cleaners were
improved, it is reasonable to assume that the losses could be
reduced. As the recovery sections (primary and scavenger)
have been addressed, the area to focus on is the
recirculating middlings.
Recirculating middlings
The issue with the recirculating middlings is the high
content of mid range density minerals i.e. the amphiboles,
pyroxenes and epidotes, which account for over 30 per cent
of feed to the cleaners, which is significantly upgraded to
the middlings. This is illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 4 illustrates the recovery of various mineral
species to concentrate, middlings and tails. It is clear, for
example, that while less than 10 per cent of epidote are
recovered to concentrate, more than 50 per cent are
recovered to middlings, to remain in the loop ad infinitum.
Cleaner tails
The cleaner tails circuit provides a safety net to catch EHM
lost as a result of the grade control function on the cleaner
circuit. Typically, the yield to concentrate on this stage is of
the order of 20 per cent, in order to minimize the loss.
This yield, as a result of trying to optimize EHM
recovery, results in high recovery of nondesirable mid
density minerals. This is illustrated in Figure 5. If epidote is
again used as the example mineral, 60 per cent is recovered
to concentrate.
The solution to these two problems (cleaner middlings
and cleaner tails tailings) is therefore to remove the
recirculating loads from the cleaner circuit.
Recovery (%)
HC1 MG5f @ pilot plant MG5f @ MPE
Ilmenite 99.32 91.22 89.39
Rutile 99.47 97.82 87.72
Zircon 98.81 97.66 98.12
Figure 3. Upgrading of mid density minerals species
Figure 4. Mineral recovery on cleaner circuit
Figure 5. Cleaner tails recovery
Table IV
HC1 recovery as scavenger

As indicated on manufacturers product brochure

REDESIGNING THE INDUSTRY STANDARDA NEW LOOK AT THE WET CONCENTRATOR CIRCUIT 111
Cleaner scavenger circuit
This was accomplished by introducing an additional circuit,
the cleaner scavenger circuit. The function of the cleaner
scavenger circuit is to recover valuable EHM, at low yield
and to reject the mid density minerals. The capability of this
circuit is illustrated in Figure 6.
The cleaner scavenger, while achieving high recovery of
the EHM minerals, significantly reduces the loading of mid
density minerals. In this example, only 25 per cent of the
epidote is recovered to concentrate.
The impact of the improvements in the cleaner circuit
attributed to introduction of the cleaner scavenger are
improved recovery on the cleaner circuit, Figure 7, as the
total content of the mid density minerals has dropped from
30 per cent to 15 per cent.
Improved performance on the cleaner tails circuit is also
noted as illustrated in Figure 8.
The impact of the cleaner scavenger circuit is twofold:
Cleaner feed quality is improved
Cleaner feed loading is reduced.
The reduced loading and improved quality allows the
cleaner circuit to achieve a better separation leading to
increased EHM recovery and grade control.
With the introduction of the cleaner scavenger circuit,
this stage becomes the stage with the highest EHM mineral
loss. In order to address this loss, and because multiple
stages of gravity separation have been unsuccessful, an
alternate separation technology is required.
Wet drum magnetic separation
Processing the cleaner scavenger tailings over the wet drum
magnetic separator allows for another opportunity to
recover EHM. The election to recover mags or non-mags is
dependent on the efficiency of separation.
Figure 9 indicates the separation efficiency of this wet
drum magnet and illustrates the benefit of recovering the
mags stream that contains a high grade of ilmenite at
relatively low yield.
The wet drum magnet tested also achieved a high
recovery of rutile and zircon to the non-mags stream;
greater than 99 per cent and 94 per cent respectively, but
the yield to non-mags was of the order of 85 per cent.
However, significant recovery of less desirable minerals
was also achieved, with a 98 per cent recovery of epidote
being a good example.
Recovering the non-mags stream would be contrary to the
objectives of the stage as it would then allow a significant
quantity of mid density minerals to return to the cleaner
circuit.
In order to recover the zircon and rutile from the non-
mags stream would require an additional process step and
the economics may not be justifiable as the loss of zircon
amounts to less than 0.01 per cent of head feed zircon.
Summary
Where are we now? The circuit has moved from the
traditional five stage circuit (see Figure 1, above) to the
circuit illustrated in Figure 10.
A concentrator circuit has been designed that does not
disregard conventional wisdom but takes a step forward in
terms of updating current technology, incorporates an
additional stage utilizing known technology, and introduces
some new technology to achieve the desired outcomes.
Have the five reasons for redesigning the circuit been
addressed?
Figure 6. Cleaner scavenger recovery
Figure 7. Cleaner performance after cleaner scavenger included
Figure 8. Cleaner tails recovery/rejection after cleaner scavenger
included
Figure 9. Eriez magnet performance
HEAVY MINERALS 2009 112
Achievement >95 per cent recovery on any feed
grade/feed quality
The EHM recovery achieved on ROM material has been
achieved but the recovery on the low feed grade, poor
quality material fell marginally short of target. This,
however, may be affected by the mouth organ splitter
attached to the HC1 test unit and may be resolved by some
fine tuning of the production model.
Mid density minerals rejection has been improved
The rejection of mid density minerals from the cleaner
circuit has been shown to have doubled.
The recirculating issues have been addressed
The re-circulating streams have been processed through an
additional circuit to improve the rejection of mid density
materials. The knock-on effect is improved separation on
the cleaner circuit.
Simple robust technology
The technology employed is simple and robust, being
spirals and wet drum magnetic separators, both of which are
familiar technology with proven records of robustness.
Reduction in plant size
The loading per square metre of the HC1 has contributed to
an estimated reduction in 50 per cent of the primary circuit
footprint, offering a reduction in plant size.
The associated capital cost saving will be determined
only if and when a new WPC is required.
In addition the recovery improvement does offer a
significant increase in revenue.
Five-stage circuit balance
The EHM unit balance for the new five-stage circuit
operating on ROM (high grade), excluding the magnetite
stripping circuit is illustrated in Figure 11.
The corresponding mass balance of the three mid density
mineral species is illustrated in Figure 12. The averaged
recovery of these minerals is under 15 per cent.
In comparison, the unit mass balance for low EHM head
grade material with high concentrations of mid density
material is illustrated in Figure 13.
Glossary of terms
MPA Mining Plant Alpha
MPC Mining Plant Charlie
MPD Mining Plant Delta
MPE Mining Plant Echo
WPC Wet Plant Concentrator
EHM Economic Heavy Mineral (refers to
Ilmenite, Rutile and Zircon)
Mid density minerals Combination of Epidote, amphibole
and pyroxene
Figure 12. Mid density unit balance for redesigned circuit
Figure 10. Redesigned five-stage circuit
Figure 11. EHM unit balance for redesigned circuit
REDESIGNING THE INDUSTRY STANDARDA NEW LOOK AT THE WET CONCENTRATOR CIRCUIT 113
References
1. RICHARDS, R.G. AND ZILLE, G. Value adding
Partnering for Profit with the Latest Technologies,
paper Submitted to AJM for presentation at the 4th
annual Global Mineral Sands Exploration and
Investment Conference.
2. WALKLATE, J.R. and FOURIE, P.J. A history of
gravity separation at Richards Bay Minerals. DMS
and gravity concentration operations in Southern
Africa. 2006.
3. Roche Mineral Technologies, Gravity Tales.
September 2006.
4. BOSHOFF, L.I. and GRACIE, S. A metallurgical
evaluation of a heavy mineral sand deposit based on
stratigraphic unit classifications, The 6th International
Heavy Minerals Conference, Back to Basics. The
Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
2007.
Figure 13. Unit balance for redesigned circuitpoor quality feed
S. Gracie
Metallurgical Specialist, Richards Bay Mineral
After completing a degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, I immigrated
to South Africa in 1989 to work for De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. I worked at Kimberley
Mines for seven years and a further two years at Premier Mine (now Cullinan Mine) in various
roles in production and development environments. In January 1998 I joined RBM as Senior
Metallurgist on one of the Wet Plant Concentrators and was shortly thereafter promoted to Met
Specialist Mining. In 2004 I moved to the development section.
HEAVY MINERALS 2009 114