Int. J. Miner. Process.

70 (2003) 53 65
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijminpro

A mathematical model of concentrate solids content

for the wet drum magnetic separator
John G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn *
JKMRC, Isles Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland 4068, Australia
Received 7 December 2001; received in revised form 21 October 2002; accepted 21 October 2002

Abstract

Low concentrate density from wet drum magnetic separators in dense medium circuits can cause
operating difficulties due to inability to obtain the required circulating medium density and,
indirectly, high medium solids losses. The literature is almost silent on the processes controlling
concentrate density. However, the common name for the region through which concentrate is
dischargedthe squeeze pan gapimplies that some extrusion process is thought to be at work.
There is no model of magnetics recovery in a wet drum magnetic separator, which includes as inputs
all significant machine and operating variables.
A series of trials, in both factorial experiments and in single variable experiments, was done using
a purpose built rig which featured a small industrial scale (700 mm lip length, 900 mm diameter) wet
drum magnetic separator. A substantial data set of 191 trials was generated in this work. The results
of the factorial experiments were used to identify the variables having a significant effect on
magnetics recovery.
It is proposed, based both on the experimental observations of the present work and on
observations reported in the literature, that the process controlling magnetic separator concentrate
density is one of drainage. Such a process should be able to be defined by an initial moisture, a
drainage rate and a drainage time, the latter being defined by the volumetric flowrate and the volume
within the drainage zone. The magnetics can be characterised by an experimentally derived ultimate
drainage moisture. A model based on these concepts and containing adjustable parameters was
developed. This model was then fitted to a randomly chosen 80% of the data, and validated by
application to the remaining 20%. The model is shown to be a good fit to data over concentrate solids
content values from 40% solids to 80% solids and for both magnetite and ferrosilicon feeds.
D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: magnetic separation; mathematical modelling; dense media

* Corresponding author. Present address: Department of State Development, Queensland Government.

E-mail address: t.napier-munn@mailbox.uq.edu.au (T.J. Napier-Munn).

0301-7516/03/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0301-7516(02)00150-3
54 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365

1. Introduction

The process of dense medium separation is of considerable importance to the minerals

industry. Large amounts of coal are processed by this method, while iron ore is the major
metalliferous ore processed. However, considerable amounts of other oresincluding
diamonds, manganese, barytes, tin, tantalum, and lead/zincare also treated. The dense
medium used in dense medium separation is a suspension of either magnetite or ferrosilicon
(or a mixture of both) in water. Magnetite media are used for coal, and ferrosilicon based
media are used for metalliferous ores, where a higher density medium is required. These
materials are chosen both for their high density and for their magnetic properties.
The most obvious role of the wet drum magnetic separator in a dense medium plant is
in the selective recovery of magnetics from dilute medium streams. However, it is also an
important contributor to the overall plant water balance. Since the concentrate from the
wet drum magnetic separator is returned to the circulating medium circuit, the concentrate
represents a pathway by which water may enter the circulating medium. The density
control strategy employed in dense medium plants is that there is a net removal of water
from the circulating medium; this results in a tendency for the circulating medium density
to rise above what is actually required. This allows the medium density to the separator to
be controlled by adding water to the medium being delivered to the separator.
Water is removed from the circulating medium circuit by passing circulating medium,
directly or indirectly, to the dilute medium circuit. The medium solids thus transferred
must be returned to the circulating medium in order to maintain the medium solids
balance. There are two pathways for this; the magnetic separator concentrate, and (where
installed) the densifier underflow. Densifiers are normally only installed for ferrosilicon
based circuits; thus in coal washeries, the only means by which the circulating density may
be raised is through the magnetic separator concentrate. A high magnetic separator
concentrate density is also desirable where densifiers are installed, as this takes load off
the densifiers. These can be high operating cost items, and if operated so as to give very
high underflow density can contribute to medium solids losses by passing more solids to
overflow and to the dilute medium circuit.
In order to develop a complete model of the medium reticulation circuit, a model which
predicts the solids content of the wet drum magnetic separator is essential. Such a model
will also allow operators of existing plants to operate at maximum efficiency. It is the
purpose of the work described in this paper to develop such a model.

2. Literature review

By comparison with the fairly large body of literature on recovery of magnetics in the
wet drum magnetic separator (Rayner and Napier-Munn, in preparation), there is very little
literature relating to concentrate solids content. Most of what exists is anecdotal, and
relates to plant commissioning or trials. Hawken (1971) reported that the speed of rotation
of a wet drum separator above 11 rpm contributes to lower density concentrate. Brake and
Tonkin (1974) in work related to the commissioning of the Blackwater coal washery,
observed that dilution of magnetic separator feed gave higher concentrate density. This
 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365 55

was attributed to reducing the entrapment of low density slimes in the concentrate.
Fleming et al. (1982), in work related to the subsequent commissioning of the near
identical Norwich Park coal washery, found that magnetic separator concentrate density
was far below the design value of 1.9 RD. This was due to incorrect setting of the drum
position, magnet position, other (unspecified) physical details, and feed pulp overflow into
the concentrate. The major factors identified as affecting separator efficiency (including
both magnetics recovery and concentrate solids content) were found to be magnet position,
the drum bottom gap, and the drum front gap. When these settings were correct,
concentrate density of 1.85 to 1.9 could be obtained. These authors also confirmed that
low magnetic separator concentrate density had an immediate, although indirect, effect in
increasing magnetite loss.
Describing the commissioning of the ferrosilicon based dense medium circuit installed
to preconcentrate Mount Isa lead zinc ore, Fiedler et al. (1984) reported that when the
magnetic separator discharge gap was opened from 20 to 35 mm the concentrate density
was increased by 0.15 RD units. This was attributed to a reduction in pumping of water
in the squeeze plate zone. Ore slimes contamination caused the magnetic separator
concentrate density to be low (2.0 to 2.2 RD). With better densifier performance, which
helped to reduce in-circuit slimes and reduced the amount of ferrosilicon in the feed,
higher density concentrate (about 2.7 RD) was obtained.
Writing from the perspective of engineering design over a number of plants, Dardis
(1987) reported that large diameter (1200 mm) drums give better concentrate density,
apparently due to longer discharge sections. He also observed that magnetic separator
concentrate density is a strong function of residence time in the discharge zone, and that
for high loadings of magnetics, the discharge gap ought to be increased to allow sufficient
time for drainage. The magnet position was also claimed to exert a major influence on
concentrate density.

3. Experimental details

The equipment and procedures used in this work have been described fully in an earlier
paper, describing the development of a mathematical model of magnetics recovery
(Rayner and Napier-Munn, in preparation). Both that model and the one described in this
paper were developed from data obtained from the same set of experiments.
The experimental error when using the system was determined by an experiment in
which 16 samples were taken at about 5 min intervals all under a fixed set of conditions.
As illustrated in Table 1, very low experimental errors were obtained for concentrate solids

Table 1
Replicate statistics (n = 16)
Statistics Solids in concentrate (%)
Mean 70.2
Std. dev. 0.48
Coeff. of var. (%) 0.68
56 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365

content. As can be seen the coefficient of variation, the standard deviation divided by the
mean value, is less than 1% for the concentrate solids content.
No correlation was found between concentrate solids content and run order, which
might be expected to have some effect due to the depletion of slurry in the sump as the run
progresses. A reduction in sump level will slightly alter the suction head to the pump,
which might be expected to affect its performancealthough this was not seen it was
routine procedure to perform all trials of any factorial experiment in random order. In this
way, any change due to run order is not added to the effect of any test variable, but rather is
manifest as experimental error.

4. Results

The experimental campaign opened with a series of eight full or partial factorial
experiments in which either four or five independent variables were examined. Other
independent variables were changed between factorial experiments. These were done to
establish the importance of the process variables chosen for study and to determine the
effects of each of these on the main process outcomes. Clearly any model, which is
developed should be in general accord with the trends found in these factorial experiments.
Another aspect of the factorial experiments was to identify those variables, which could
usefully be studied further in subsequent experiments in which a single variable would be
varied incrementally.
The effects of each of the five independent variables considered (pickup gap, discharge
gap, magnet position, bypass valve setting, and spigot valve setting) on magnetics
recovery were calculated according to the method given by Davies (1967), and the
significance levels were estimated by the method of Yates (1937). This method gives an
estimation of the significance of these effects where either the standard deviation of the
dependent variables is known or where an internal estimate of the experimental error may
be obtained from high order interactions which are considered to be negligible. The
outcomes of these factorial experiments have been reported in detail elsewhere (Rayner,
1995); Table 2 shows the number of experiments in which each independent variable was
found to have a significant effect (at the 95% confidence level) on either magnetics
recovery or on the closely related effluent magnetics content.

Table 2
Number of factorial experiments showing significant effects of independent variables on concentrate solids
content
Independent variable Number of experiments
Pickup gap 3
Discharge gap 6
Magnet position 1
Bypass valve 7
Spigot valve 2
 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365 57

The experiments showed that discharge gap had a significant effect on concentrate
solids content in six out of the eight factorial experiments. Increasing discharge gap always
gave a higher concentrate solids content. The only two experiments where a significant
effect was not found had high concentrate solids content at both high and low values of
gap setting, due to the values of other variables. Not surprisingly, the bypass position had a
significant effect on concentrate solids content in seven factorial experiments. Opening the
bypass valve, thereby reducing the flowrate through the separator, had a universally
beneficial effect.
In contrast to the observations of Dardis (1987), magnet position was only found to
have a significant effect on magnetics recovery in one experiment. In this work, smaller
changes in magnet position were used, which were intended to represent likely operating
settings close to the manufacturers recommended position. The spigot valve position was
found to have a significant effect in only two experiments; however, in a full-length weir
separator the changes in height over the weir due to spigot (or indeed feedrate) changes are
small.
A set of incremental experiments was done after the results of the factorial experiments
were available. They complement the factorial experiments in that variables which could
not easily be examined in factorial experiments (for example, non-magnetics contami-
nation and feed solids content) were considered, or variables which were investigated in
the factorial experiments were examined over a much wider range of values (for example
magnet position). In these experiments, one variable was changed over a range of values,
or in some experiments this was done while a second variable was set at either a high or a
low value. In such experiments, the interaction between the two variables was also
examined. The results of all trials in both factorial and incremental experiments are
tabulated elsewhere (Rayner, 1999).

5. Concentrate solids content model development

The conceptual model of the discharge of material described by Rayner and Napier-
Munn (1997) is that magnetic solids as a dilute slurry are lifted out of the bath of the
separator, upon which they begin to drain. This drainage continues until the concentrate
overflows the discharge lip. Drainage is enhanced by increased residence time in the
drainage zone, which in turn is controlled by the volume of the discharge zone and the
throughput.
This conceptual model has already been applied successfully in practice. In the
Warkworth coal washery, low-density magnetic separator concentrate had been a cause
of severe operating difficulties in maintaining the required circulating medium density. On
the advice of one of the authors (JGR), the discharge gap was increased to 37 mm
(apparently from the standard 19 mm). This action raised the density of the concentrate
from 1.8 to 2.1 RD, resulting in a substantial easing of the prevailing process difficulties
(Lee, 1995).
The asymptote of a real drainage process is not zero; even after infinite time, there is
still some residual moisture held in the concentrate by capillary pressure which is not
removable by drainage. On the assumption that the drainage process is first order with
58 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365

respect to the amount of removable moisture held in unit mass of dry solids, the moisture
content would decay exponentially. Such a decay process is described by
dM
gM  Ml 1
dt
where M is the moisture after time t (dry solids basis); Ml is the moisture after infinite
time (dry solids basis), and; g is a rate constant (s 1) or, on rearrangement

dM
gdt 2
M  Ml

Integrating, and representing the constant as a logarithm, gives

lnM  Ml lnC gt 3

M  Ml C egt 4

at the initial condition when t = 0, and the initial moisture is M0

M0  Ml C 1 5

1
C 6
M0  Ml

which, on substitution and rearrangement, gives

M Ml M0  Ml egt 7
Residence time in the drainage zone (tD) may be estimated by:
V
tD 8
QD
where V is the volume of the drainage zone per unit length and QD is the volumetric flow
rate through the drainage zone.
The volume of the drainage zone may be represented as a constant, controlled by the
physical design of the machine, plus some function of a range of machine and process
parameters. Examination of the geometry of the drainage space shows that although the
volume of effluent flowing over the weir (controlled by spigot setting and volumetric
feedrate) and the pickup gap have an influence on the volume, this is very small (and may
be considered negligible) compared to the influence of the discharge gap.
For the Eriez machine used in this work, the volume of the drainage zone in mm3 per
unit length is given by:

V 780 260xD 9
where xD is the discharge gap (mm).
 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365 59

The residence time will be decreased by an increase in the volumetric flow rate through
the discharge zone. This will occur when the feed rate to the separator is increased, as was
observed in the data. Combining these equations gives an equation for moisture on a dry
solids basis, which is based on the drainage concept:
 
780260xD
g QD
M Ml M0  Ml  e 10
The ultimate drainage moisture, Ml, was estimated from several prolonged settling
tests, and was found to be 0.15 for both magnetite and milled ferrosilicon. For atomised
(spherical) ferrosilicon, which was not used in this work, it was found to be 0.10,
indicating that drier concentrate might be expected with such material.
The following parameterised equations were developed for both M0 and QD by
dimensional analysis:
 b      
D2 x xp c xD d e qs Qf f
M0 a Mf 11
Qf D D F

 i      
D2 x xp j xD k 1 qs Qf m
QD hQf Mf 12
Qf D D F

where D is the drum diameter (m); x is the drum rotational velocity (rad/s); xP is the
pickup gap (m); xD is the discharge gap (m); Mf is the feed moisture; Qf is the volumetric
feedrate per unit length (m3/h/m); F is the mass feedrate per unit length (t/h/m), and; a. . .f,
h. . .m are parameters to be fitted for each equation.
Combining these expressions gives a model with six variables and 12 parameters ( gh
is effectively one parameter, so h can be discarded). It is apparent from the settling
testwork conducted that the drainage rates for magnetite and for ferrosilicon are different.
Thus, the parameter g, which now includes drainage rate as well as the proportionality
constant for the QD model, should be different for magnetite and for ferrosilicon. In order
to fit drainage rate values for magnetite and ferrosilicon separately, the parameter g was
expanded and replaced with the expression:

gqs 6:8 hqs 5:2 13

The logical expressions equate to either 0 or 1; and since in the data array used, solids
density is entered as either 6.8 for ferrosilicon or 5.2 for magnetite, one logical expression
will be one and the other zero. Thus, this expression will always equate to either g or h
depending on the value of qs. The fitting procedure will therefore use g as the rate constant
for ferrosilicon and h for magnetite. All other fitted parameters apply to both magnetite
and ferrosilicon. This method allows all the data sets to be fitted together, but to still obtain
different values for g and h. Thus, the equation for concentrate moisture becomes:

780260xD
gqs 6:8hqs 5:2
M 0:15 M0  0:15e QD
14
60 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365

Table 3
Results of fitting of concentrate solids data
Parameter Limits All parameters After elimination
a 0.25e6 1.3153e5 76043
b  1.0  0.9220  0.7788
c  1.0  0.4045  0.1909
d 0.5 2.8640e  3
e 0.5 0.1260 0.1447
f  1.0  4.5186e  6
g 0.50 30.343 29.064
h 0.50 29.087 27.998
i  2.1 0.9823 0.9686
j 0.5 1.9686e  2
k 0.5 0.9230 0.9233
l 0.2 2.0639e  4
m  2.0  1.2177e  6
n 0.5 9.8479e  6 2.6734e  7
o  5.5 0.5304
p  10.5  3.0649  3.7101
q  5.5 0.3750

Results
Sum of errors squared 0.2555 0.2579
Standard deviation 4.1274e  2 4.1466e  2
Correlation coefficient (Model vs. Data) 0.7704 0.7680

It is commonly seen that at very low, or zero, mass flowrate of magnetic feed to a
magnetic separator, clear water is discharged from the solids which are held at the
dischargethis is commonly observed in secondary separators when the primary
separators are working well. Preliminary attempts at fitting the data to the above model
had shown that the data for the low solids content feedand hence, low-mass flowrate
experiment contributed substantially to the total error. This additional water content is only
likely to have a noticeable effect under these conditions, and thus it is appropriate to
consider the introduction of a term describing this additional water flow, Qw. Dimensional
analysis gives:
 x o  x p  q q
2 p D s
Qw nD x 15
D D qW
where n. . .q are further fitting parameters.
The additional moisture M* will then be given by:

1 MF
M* Qw 16
Qf qf

The denominator here is equal to the mass flowrate of solids. Combining these two
equations gives:
 
1 Mf 2  xP o  xD p qs q
M* nD x 17
Qf qf D D qW
 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365 61

It is more common that the relative amounts of dry solids and of water in a slurry is
presented as solids content. Concentrate moisture may be transposed to concentrate solids
content, S, by

1
S 18
M 1

Combining Eqs. 11, 12, 14, 17 and 18 gives an equation for concentrate solids content
in six variables and 17 parameters. This equation has been fitted to the available data using
DataFit 2.0c. On a randomly chosen 151 data sets (80% of the total available), the
parameter values given in Table 3 were obtained. The fitting software used allows
parameter limits to be set, and these are also shown. Limits were based on a consideration
of the expected response of each variable. Table 3 also shows the parameter values after
back elimination. Here, the original 17 parameters have been reduced to 10 with only
marginal loss of fit quality. Further elimination of parameters causes substantial deterio-
ration of the quality of the fit.
Fig. 1 shows the comparison of observed and fitted data. As may be seen, the fit
obtained is good particularly given that this covers the entire data set, including both
magnetite and ferrosilicon, over a wide range of most independent variables. The
correlation coefficient is relatively low due to the small range of data available. In
practice, there is relatively little variation in the concentrate solids content observed
most data in this work fall between 65% and 75% solids content, and all fall between
40% and 80%. Indeed almost all of the low-concentrate solids content values derive

Fig. 1. The relationship between observed and fitted values of concentrate solids.
62 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365

Table 4
Comparison of data and concentrate solids content model mean squares
Model Factorials
Standard deviation 0.041466
Mean square 0.001719 0.000187
Degrees of freedom 141 53
Ratio of mean squares 9.2

from the factorial experiment with low feed solids content, Mf. Here, the low-concentrate
solids is due to a low value of M0, which is heavily dependent upon Mf.
The error in the model, manifest in the standard deviation shown in Table 3, results
from the error in the datathat is, in the determination of concentrate solids content
and in the model itself. A comparison of the variance of the data and the model mean
square gives an indication of the significance of the model error. As described by
Davies (1967), an estimate of error variance is obtained in each factorial experiment.
This may be averaged across all factorial experiments, weighing for the number of
degrees of freedom, to obtain an estimate of the basic error variance of the data. The
estimated mean square, or variance, for concentrate solids content is shown in Table 4.
The degrees of freedom is the sum of the degrees of freedom across all factorial
experiments.
The ratio of mean squares is an F statistic whose significance can be estimated by
reference to a table of critical values. The critical F value for the variances and degrees of
freedom given is about 1.5 at the 95% level. The observed ratio of mean squares of 9.2
indicates that there is more variance in the model than is accounted for by variance in the
data, and thus that there are factors which may not be included in the model. For example,
it may be that the model for water flow at zero mass flow of solids, QW, is inadequate; this
could be improved by direct determination of this water flow under different separator
conditions.
This model was then applied to the remaining 40 data sets (20% of the total available).
It should be noted that the model is independent of this smaller data set, having been
generated on the larger data set; this then serves to test the models applicability to
independent data. Comparison of the predicted value with the observed actual values gave
the results shown in Table 5, indicating that for this independent data set, the model was
able to give a good prediction of the actual magnetics loss.
It is then a reasonable assumption that for any further data falling in the range over
which the model was developed the model will accurately predict the concentrate solids
content to a degree of precision and accuracy which is adequate for process design and

Table 5
Comparison of model prediction with observed data
All parameters After elimination
Sum of errors squared 9.8314e  2 9.9949e  2
Residual standard deviation 5.0208e  2 5.0624e  2
Correlation coefficient (Model vs. Data) 0.8068 0.8084
Note: solids content expressed as a fraction.
 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365 63

Fig. 2. The relationship between observed and fitted values of concentrate solids for the validation data set.

optimisation. The observed standard deviation of the predicted value from the observed
value here may be taken as that which would be obtained from the model in general. The
standard deviation of the concentrate solids content is equivalent to an error in the
concentrate solids content of 5% absolute. For example, if a predicted concentrate solids
content for a particular set of conditions is 70%, the actual concentrate solids content
would be expected to be between 65% and 75%. Fig. 2 shows the comparison of observed
data and predicted results for the validation set of data using the 10 parameter model
obtained after back elimination of parameters. As may be seen, the fit obtained for
concentrate solids content is visually satisfactory.

6. Conclusions

A model based on theory and on observed phenomena has been developed to predict
concentrate solids content in the concentrate from a wet drum magnetic separator in a
dense medium application. The model is based on the concept that concentrate is
dewatered by free drainage, and thus may be represented by an initial moisture, a drainage
rate, and a residence time. Based on a data set of 151 trials, and using a nonlinear data
fitting technique, parameter values have been estimated which give the best fit of the
model to the data. Parameter elimination has been carried out on the model to remove
those parameters which are not significantthis has resulted in a model containing 10
parameters. This model has been applied to a further data set of 40 trials; this has resulted
in a good agreement of the model prediction with the observed values.
64 J.G. Rayner, T.J. Napier-Munn / Int. J. Miner. Process. 70 (2003) 5365

6.1. Scope of the models

The models developed are valid over the range of data used in the fitting of model
parameters, and for the type of machine used in the test work. However, since the models
are based on mechanistic sub-models, it is probable that some extrapolation is possible.
Similarly, it is reasonable to expect that in order to apply the model to other machines not
all parameters would need to be re-estimated. The model will predict concentrate solids
content to the accuracy stated in Table 5.

6.2. Limitations of the models

Prediction of performance of materials other than the magnetite and the ferrosilicon
used is outside the scope of the model. However, the model should work with new
materials simply by estimating a new g or h parameter in the solids content model (which
relates to the drainage rate of a particular material).
There is no model to predict the contamination of the concentrate by non-magnetics,
other than that at feed contamination below about 85%, the concentrate grade will be 99%
or better. The development of such a model is hampered by the difficulty in determining
concentrate grade accurately at levels approaching 100%. In addition, such a model would
be of limited value, since feed contamination values of greater than 85% are seldom
encountered except in secondary separators. Here, the impact of low-grade concentrate is
almost inconsequential, since the vast majority of the concentrate returning to the
circulating medium comes from the primary separator. (If the primary recovery is
99.9%, and even if the secondary recovery is also 99.9%, then the ratio of primary
concentrate to secondary concentrate mass flows is 1000:1.)

6.3. Magnetic separator practice

In cases where the magnetic separator is used to densify medium (for example in coal
preparation plants), it is important that the concentrate be as dry as possible. The model
confirms previous empirical knowledge that higher volumetric or dry solids mass
throughput will tend to give a wetter concentrate, as will a more dilute feed. The model
is based on a new understanding of the process by which concentrate is dewatered, and in
particular, the influence of the discharge gap on this process. The discharge gap is a major
determinant of concentrate solids content, which may be increased by widening the
discharge gap. Since this is a relatively simple adjustment to effect, plant operators now
have a means by which concentrate solids content can be adjusted if required.

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