Mill Operator Crane Operation Safety
Mill Operator Crane Operation Safety: Both to you, anyone helping you, and the equipment that you are working around. When you are learning this job, some of the skills that you should be developing are, how to stop a swinging load, accuracy when moving your load into position, and finally safety awareness. The parts to […]
Stage Addition of Flotation Reagents
In Laboratory, the quality of the concentrate floated in the 1st minute of rougher improves if reagent/collector is stage-added. Stage-adding collector involves adding ½ the total dosage to the 1st cell + ¼ to the 2nd and ¼ to the 3rd or 4th cell. It can be expected a similar metallurgical behavior could be […]
Concentrator Troubleshooting -From Grinding to Flotation
Let me sum this up in two or three sentences. Start solving a problem at the effect. Reduce the effect as much as possible when it is losing money or making a mess. Check all of your mechanical and operational variables to discover the cause. You know what the equipment and process is supposed to […]
Troubleshooting an Overflowing Pump box
Here is an example, if there is a pump box over flowing. The effect is that the pump is overflowing. What we want to know is, what is the cause? Mechanical failure? Electrical? Perhaps an Airlock? First, go to the pump itself, remember the purpose of a pump is to deliver slurry from one point […]
Basic Slurry Sampling Method
The first rule of sampling technique is the sample must be REPRESENTATIVE. What this means is that the sample must be a true indication of the content of material being sampled. To accomplish the most basics of all slurry sampling method, this the operator has a few guidelines to follow. First, you need get a […]
Concentrators Sample Collection – When and Why
What is the purpose of SAMPLING? Where do you need to collect samples in a plant for good operation and correct metallurgical accounting? Samples give the operating staff and crew all of the information that is necessary to operate the concentrator plant. Samples may show when equipment is almost worn out, when circuit performance is […]
Handheld XRF Spectrometer
Handheld XRF spectrometers are a fast, accurate, and portable tool that can be used for a variety of tasks in the mining industry. What is a portable spectrometer and how do you use one? A handheld “XRF gun” is an x-ray instrument used for chemical analyses. Shaped and sized similarly to a barcode scanner, the […]
Gravity Gold Recovery, Flotation and Carbon-in-Leach
To further evaluate the process of Gold Recovery by Gravity, Flotation and Carbon-in-Leach Cyanidation, some cleaner tests with regrind of the bulk rougher concentrate, were conducted. Rougher flotation concentrates were reground to improve leach kinetics. The regrind sizes for these range of tests were not optimized. Regrind discharge sizes of between 24 to 64µm P80 were obtained. […]
How a Grate Discharge Ball Mill Works
Here I try to explain how ground slurry is discharged from a grate ball mill (or SAG). How it works is, the slurry flows across the grate as it would a screen panel. On the other side of the grate/screens are veins like a pump impeller. As the mill turns/rotates the slurry is “pumped” out […]
Variables for Concentrate Humidity: Dryer Heat and Feed Cake Moisture
This last set of operating variables is very basic. There are only two, the PERCENTAGE of MOISTURE that is in the concentrate as it goes into the drier, (your filter cake humidity) and the TEMPERATURE that the drier is heated to. It is very evident that the wetter the concentrate the longer that it will […]