Method, process, and system of using a mill to separate metals from fibrous feedstock

A process for producing a non-ferrous metal concentrate from aspirated fibrous waste, the process comprising:

• feeding an aspirated lights fraction containing fibrous organic or plastic material with embedded metals to a rubber-lined wet ball mill equipped with water inlets;
• operating the wet ball mill to liberate fibers from metallic particles and form a slurry;
• removing ferrous metals by wet magnetic separation;
• sizing the slurry at a first cut between 10 mm and 25 mm and directing the oversize to inertial or fluidized separation and the undersize to fines classification;
• classifying at least a portion of the undersize at about 0-4 mm using hydrocyclones and/or spiral separators to produce a non-ferrous metals concentrate and a fibrous/light residue;
• and
• clarifying and recycling process water to the wet ball mill.

A system for recovering metals from fibrous waste, comprising:

• a source of fibrous feedstock having a metals content of less than about 5 wt %;
• a media mill selected from a ball mill or rod mill positioned downstream of the source and configured to liberate metallic particles from fibers;
• a discharge sizing device coupled to the media mill and configured to provide a first size cut between 10 mm and 25 mm;
• a magnetic separator downstream of the media mill;
• a density-based separator selected from an inertia table, hydrocyclone, spiral separator, jig, sink-float device, kinetic density separator, or rising-current separator;
• and
• one or more conveyors and/or screws arranged to deliver the fibrous feedstock to the media mill and to route sized streams to the density-based separator,
• the system being configured to produce a metals fraction and a fibrous residue fraction from the fibrous feedstock.