METALLURGICAL EFFICIENCY

One of the most important and basic concepts in beneficiation plant is metallurgical efficiency. Two terms are commonly used to describe the efficiency of metallurgical processes: recovery and grade. These phenomena are illustrated in the generalized process presented in Figure 1.

In above example, 100 tph of ore are being fed into a concentration operation that produces 4.5 tph of concentrate and 95.5 tph of tailings. In upgrading this process, then, 1.0 tph of the desired material, A, is introduced into the unit operation and 0.9 tph (4.5 × 0.2) of this material reports to the concentrate, resulting in 90% recovery (0.9/1.0 × 100). The grade of the mineral, A, has been improved from 1% to 20%. The term percent recovery refers to the percentage of the valuable material reporting to the concentrate with reference to the amount of this material in the feed. Note that obtaining the highest possible recovery is not necessarily the best approach in a concentration process. High recovery without acceptable grade will lead to an unsalable product and is therefore unsatisfactory.

Mineral processing engineers are responsible for optimizing processes to yield the highest possible recovery with acceptable purity (grade) for the buyers or engineers who will treat this concentrate further to extract the metal values. To achieve this goal, economic assessments of all possible technological alternatives must be conducted.

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