Centrifugal jig for ore beneficiation

A rotary jig for ore beneficiation that separates a more dense portion from a less dense portion of particulated pulp material, comprising in combination:

• a hutch defining a chamber;
• a vertically journaled rotor having vertically spaced upper and lower rotor plates carrying a cylindrical jig screen therebetween to define a jigging chamber, said hutch and said lower rotor plate constructed and arranged for substantial containment of fluidic media therein for rotation in the hutch chamber;
• plural pulsing heads in the hutch chamber radially outwardly of the jig screen and spacedly positioned about the periphery of the jig screen, each pulsing head having means of directing a coherent stream of pressurized air radially inwardly to spaced areas of the jig screen;
• means of feeding particulate pulp material into the lower portion of the jigging chamber;
• means of removing a less dense particulate fraction from the upper portion of the jig screen;
• means of collecting and removing the more dense particulate fraction from the lower portion of the hutch radially outwardly of the jigging chamber and;
• means of rotating the rotor,
• means of supplying fluidic media to the hutch;
• and,
• means of supplying pressurized gaseous media to the pulsing heads.

The method for separating a more dense fraction from a less dense fraction of particulate pulp material, comprising the steps of:

• introducing a slurry of pulp material into a jigging chamber, having a cylindrical peripheral jig screen defining a jig bed on its inner surface and surrounded by a fluidic media;
• rotating the peripheral jig screen about its axis at a velocity sufficient to cause centrifugal loading on the jig bed substantially in excess of the force of gravity and to cause rotation in the fluidic media and particulate matter therein to move that particulate matter radially outwardly to the jigging bed supported on the jig screen;
• simultaneously jigging the pulp material in the rotating cylindrical jig bed by directing pressurized gas radially inwardly therethrough at plural peripherally spaced positions thereabout to cause the jig bed at said spaced positions to expand inwardly and thereafter at least partially collapse outwardly as it moves past the areas of pressurized gas impingement;
• collecting a heavier fraction of particulate matter radially outwardly of the jigging screen;
• and
• removing a lighter fraction of particulate matter from the upper portion of the jigging screen.