Mineral separation process

摘要

The process comprises feeding raw material to one end of a cylindrical separation vessel and feeding a separating medium to another end of the vessel so that a vortical flow is induced in the vessel. Separation is controlled by monitoring the pressure of the separation and altering the rate of material fed into the vessel in response to any pressure variation. AN Independent claim is included for an apparatus having an involute inlet (2) for the separating medium at or towards one end of the vessel, an axial feed inlet for raw material (6) at the other end of the vessel, an axial outlet (4) for low density material adjacent the involute inlet, an involute outlet (8) for high density material adjacent the raw material inlet. A feed device separates the separating medium and a pressure sensor detects the pressure of the separation and a controller varies the feed of the separation medium in response to the detected pressure of the separation.