Influence of jig frequency on the separation of coal from the Bonito seam — Santa Catarina, Brazil

The coal from the Barro Branco seam, which is widely used, is situated in the southern region of Brazil, State of Santa Catarina, and it is nearing depletion. The remaining coal from the Bonito seam in the same region is less known and it is characterized by the high percentage of near gravity material and ash content. This peculiarity makes it difficult to treat in the current processing plants, which use jigs for this purpose. This product should have ≤ 43% ash content for supplying Jorge Lacerdaʹs thermal electric power plant. This study was carried out to investigate other routes and improvements for coal cleaning. Dry processing and jigging tests were conducted in Germany for this purpose. Dry processing was done using an X-ray sorter. Tests were also performed using a batch jig to study the influence of jig frequency on the separation of two coal fractions. It was found that the processing at a specific frequency of pulsation for this coal allows the concentration of a suitable product for the market with yield about 30%.