A short review on hydraulic classification and its development in mineral industry

Abstract Depletion of high grade ores and intricate association of the gangue with ore minerals necessity for reducing the run-of-mine (ROM) ore to finer sizes. In addition to this the advents of mining mechanization and ore handling systems have played their part in increasing the percentage of fines (below 8 mm). With the increase in quantum of fines, the performance of conventional classifiers in processing is not up to the desired level. As a result both mineral and coal industries are looking forward to a more efficient and reliable separator for treating the fine size range particles. The recently developed hindered classifiers have tremendous potential for application in the fine particle size ranges. Attempts to evaluate the performance of these classifiers have been an active research topic. However, these classifiers are yet to be commercialized at full scale in the widespread application that they are capable of. In the present article, an attempt is made to review the different types of classifiers with reference to principle, mechanism and application with a focus on hydraulic classifiers.

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