Process of treating metal bearing crushed rock to control respirable dust during transport in the process including a metal concentrating circuit
AssigneeFreedom Industries, Inc.
InventorsKEVIN D. SKILES, William E. Tis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of alleviating dust in the early stages of metal ore processing, such as copper ore, through mining the ore through concentration involves spraying and wetting crushed ore rock and ground particles and dust at least several of a series of locations with a dust suppressant containing major amounts of water plus minor amounts of an additive combination of glycerol and a selected non-ionic surfactant, and passing the wetted particles and dust to a metal concentrator where the additive combination does not interfere with metal concentration yield.
Claims12
A method of controlling respirable dust in recovering metal values from a metal bearing sulfide material comprising the steps:
- (1) providing a stream of rock material comprising the metal bearing sulfide material;
- (2) crushing the rock material at least once, to provide particle and dust material;
- (3) conveying the particle and dust material to a metal sulfide ore concentrator, including at least one device, capable of separating metal values from the particle and dust material;
- wherein during at least one of steps (1), (2) or (3) the material is contacted with a surfactant based dust control palliative comprising a water mixture of glycerol and non-ionic surfactant, which surfactant enhances the wetting ability of the water to the particle and dust on the material, to provide a wetted particle and dust material having reduced hydrophobicity;
- and then
- (4) passing the wetted particle and dust material through a metal sulfide ore concentrator machine to provide concentrated metal values.
A method of controlling dust in recovering copper values from a metal bearing material comprising the steps:
- (1) providing a stream of rock material comprising a copper bearing material;
- (2) crushing the rock material at least once, to provide particle and dust material;
- (3) conveying the particle and dust material, in a conveying action having at least one point of free fall, to a copper sulfide ore concentrator, including at least one flotation machine, capable of separating copper values from the particle and dust material;
- wherein during at least one of steps (1), (2) or (3) the material is sprayed with a surfactant based dust control palliative comprising a water dispersion of glycerol and non-ionic surfactant containing C8 to C14 carbon chains with attached ethoxylated and propoxylated alcohols, which surfactant enhances the wetting ability of the water to the particle and dust material, to provide a wetted particle and dust material agglomerate;
- and then
- (4) passing the agglomerate through a flotation machine to provide a copper concentrate material containing from 10 wt. % to 50 wt. % copper metal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.