System and method for separating material
OwnerJames Daniel Stollings, Jack Perry Queenerinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for separating valuable material, such as precious metals and rare earth elements, from a raw material, such as coal, is disclosed. The system may include a crusher or pulverizer for producing finely crushed material. This crushed material may be made into a slurry and placed into an econosizer for separating material by its specific gravity. High specific gravity material may be further refined using magnets, separators, or centrifuges, among other disclosed components of the system.
Claims16
A system for separating a plurality of valuable materials from a raw material, the system comprising:
- one or more crushers for reducing the raw material to a crushed material being 60 mesh or finer in size;
- a mixing tank for combining the crushed material with water to produce a slurry;
- an econosizer for separating higher specific gravity material from lower specific gravity material within the slurry;
- a low specific gravity circuit for extracting a first valuable material from the low specific gravity material;
- a high specific gravity circuit for extracting a second valuable material from the higher specific gravity material;
- and
- a medium specific gravity circuit for extracting a third valuable material from a medium specific gravity material separated from the econosizer,
- wherein the high specific gravity circuit is for further extracting a fourth valuable material, and the high specific gravity circuit further includes a first magnet having sufficient magnetic strength to forcibly separate the second valuable material from the slurry but not the third valuable material, and the second magnet having sufficient magnetic strength to forcibly separate the fourth valuable material from the slurry.
A method for separating a plurality of valuable materials from a raw material, the method comprising:
- crushing the raw material to a size of 60 mesh or finer;
- creating a slurry from the crushed raw material and water;
- separating high specific gravity material, medium specific gravity material, and low specific gravity material from the slurry through an econosizer;
- processing the low specific gravity material through a low specific gravity circuit in order to extract a first valuable material;
- processing the high specific gravity material through a high specific gravity circuit in order to extract a second valuable material;
- and
- processing the medium specific gravity material though a medium specific gravity circuit in order to extract a third valuable material,
- wherein processing the high specific gravity material is to further extract a fourth valuable material, and wherein the high specific gravity circuit includes a first magnet having sufficient magnetic strength to forcibly separate the second valuable material from the slurry but not the third valuable material, and the second magnet having sufficient magnetic strength to forcibly separate the fourth valuable material from the slurry.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.