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US 4,247,390 AGranted
Method of separating vermiculite from the associated gangue
OwnerFrank S. Knollinventor
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Abstract
A method of separating vermiculite from the associated gangue is disclosed in which the ore is fed to the top of a rotating support comprising a grounded conductive underlayer and a nonconductive overlayer and the ore particles are pinned to the rotating support by ion bombardment. The gangue tends to separate first from the roll while the vermiculite particles have a greater tendency to remain pinned to the roll and can be collected as a separate fraction.
Claims30
A method of treating a particulate ore to separate relatively flat crystalline mineral particles from the associated gangue comprising the steps of:
- feeding to a rotating support comprising a grounded, conductive underlayer and a nonconductive overlayer, an ore containing such components and having a moisture content not exceeding about 20% by weight, a minimum particle size of at least about 6 millimeters and a ratio of the average flatness coefficient of the relatively flat particles to that of the remaining particles of at least about 2;
- pinning the ore particles to the rotating support by bombarding the particles on the support in a first zone along the path of rotation of the support with ions from at least one ionizing electrode;
- and
- collecting a tailings fraction comparatively poor in relatively flat crystalline mineral particles and a product fraction comparatively rich in relatively flat crystalline mineral particles in second and third zones respectively along the path of rotation of the support as the particles separate from the rotating support.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.