Increasing efficiency of thickener operation in concentrate plant of iron ore mine using coagulation-flocculation

Thickener is a main and fundamental step in modern mining separation processes. In this research, the effect of flocculant consumption rate and feed solid concentration of settling rate of layers was studied with different concentrations in iron ore mine of Jalalabad, Zarand, Kerman, Iran. The experiments were performed in two 1000 ml graduated cylinders (61 and 62 mm diagonal and heights of 339 and 349 mm) while the average of feed solid concentration was 12 percent. Additional tests were performed with feed solid concentration of 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 percent solid weight and dosage rate of flocculant was 10, 14, 18, 22, and 26 g/t respectively. Results depicted that with increasing the flocculant dosage to 22 g/ton, settling rate increased from 0.3 to 0.9 cm/s reaching maximum, and with increasing from 22 to 26 g/ton, settling rate was decrease slowly and reached from 0.9 to 0.7 cm/s.