Abstract:
Standard material analysis methods used in the heavy minerals industry to characterise spiral
separation behaviour is unable to fully quantify performance differences between the available
spiral profiles of today. This study proposes an enhanced method to analyse spiral products to
identify key separation performance differences between different spiral profiles for specific feed
materials. The enhanced analysis method has two major components. The first involves a material
characterisation method that was developed using the analytical capability of QemscanR
to simultaneously quantify particle density and particle size. The second involves a data presentation
method that was developed by making improvements to the Holland-Batt equation.
The standard material characterisation method was compared to the enhanced method using
the separation products of two different spiral profiles with two different feed materials. The
benefit of the developed method is clearly demonstrated by the additional separation performance
information that it produced. This information enables the user to make more informed
decisions when identifying spiral performance deviations in current installations, when selecting
the correct spiral profile prior to spiral replacement, and during the spiral plant design process.
