Preamble

Mineral beneficiation is the first step in extraction of metal from natural resources. With the depletion of high grade metal ores it is important to increase the metal grade of an ore by physical methods; which are termed mineral beneficiation. The objectives of mineral beneficiation are

• To increase the metal grade of ore
• To reduce the amount of gangue minerals so that lower volume of slag forms in pyromettallurgical extraction of metals. Slag contains mostly gangue minerals.
• To decrease the thermal energy required to separate liquid metal from gangue minerals.
• To decrease the aqueous solution requirement in hydrometturgical extraction of metals.

In this lecture, mineral beneficiation science and technology are briefly reviewed so that readers can apply materials balance principles. Details about the mineral beneficiation can be studied in the reference given in this lecture.

What constitutes mineral beneficiation?

Ore is an aggregate of minerals and contains valuable and gangue minerals. The mineral beneficiation involves separations of gangue minerals from ore and is done in the following two stages:

1) Liberation of valuable mineral by size reduction technologies. In most ores the valuable minerals is  distributed in the matrix of ore.

2) Concentration technologies to separate the gangue minerals and to achieve increase in the content  of the valuable mineral to increase the metal grade.