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2579002 
Journal Article 
INNOVATIVE SURGE BIN DESIGN FOR MINERAL SANDS PROCESSING PLANT 
Lyons, J; Hill, G; Vadeikis, C; Wiche, S 
2009 
520-526 
WOS:000281457100051 
Mineral Technologies carried out the mineral processing test work and developed the flow sheets for a mineral sands project in the Murray Basin, Australia. Mineral Technologies then completed the detailed engineering design for the project.



The ore body required a processing plant that could operate efficiently over a wide range of conditions:



Slimes up to 30%



Feed Rate from 500 to 750tph



Heavy Mineral in situ from 12 to 19% w/w



The mined ore was to be stockpiled and blended to achieve this operating range. The material was to be screened and scrubbed to liberate the HM from the clays. The feed was then pumped to the Feed Preparation area of the Concentrator. The concentrator utilised gravity separation and wet magnetic separation to produce a Heavy Mineral Concentrate. The separation can cater for some slimes but anything more than about 3% will affect mineral recovery. The feed preparation utilised a set of cyclones to remove the majority of the clays and presented the upgraded feed to the surge bin. The cyclone overflow was then treated in thickeners for disposal with the tailings.



The Surge Bin was designed to have mass flow characteristics allowing material to be stored for up to an hour with a consolidation in excess of 80%w/w. The material is withdrawn using slurry pumps to feed to the spiral separators. Various forms of dilution water are injected into the bin to assist in the density control of the slurry.



The bin has a storage capacity of 350 tonnes and delivers the slurry to the spirals at a constant density.



This bin design utilises the work of Jenike and the University of Newcastle, Australia to determine the critical dimensions of the Surge Bin to ensure that there is mass flow. This work has been applied to particulate dry solids in silos previously but not to slurries. However, in fact, the slurry acts more like a solid in this situation rather than a liquid.