JOURNAL PAPER

Processing strategy for different coal types

I. du Plessis

SYNOPSIS

The metallurgical response of a difficult to treat coal and an easy to treat coal orebody were investigated in terms of the coal yield and the coal quality in a basic coal recovery flowsheet. The purpose of this paper is to show trends and derive principles for the treatment of different coal types. This investigation entailed using the LIMN simulator to simulate the metallurgical response by varying the plant operational parameters. The controllable plant variables investigated were:
➤ Cyclone size
➤ Screen and hydrocyclone cut points
➤ Medium cut density
➤ Feed particle size distribution. The following general principles can be derived from the work:
➤ Crushing finer can significantly improve the overall metallurgical performance, especially for a difficult to treat ore
➤ The strategy of crushing finer works better when there is a flotation stage in the circuit as it minimizes losses to fine discard
➤ Smaller cyclones result in slightly better performance because of the greater centrifugal force generated giving a smaller breakaway size.

Keywords: Coal yield, coal quality, LIMN, coal types, processing strategy, liberation

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References

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