Gravity Separation of Antimony Ore – How to Gravity Separate Antimony Ore

Gravity separation is a method of separating minerals based on their different settling or movement velocities in a medium flow. This includes jigging (vertical flow), shaking table separation (inclined flow), centrifugal separation (rotational flow), and heavy media separation, where the ore is separated in a heavy suspension.

Stibnite has a density of 4.26 g/cm³, and gangue has a density of 2.6-2.65 g/cm³, with a density-to-weight ratio of 2.19-2.26, making it an easily separable ore by density. Stibnite (5.2 g/cm³), red stibnite (7.5 g/cm³), and stibnite (5.57 g/cm³) have density-to-weight ratios of 2.55-2.63, 3.93-4.06, and 2.76-2.86 respectively, making these three types of antimony ores extremely easily separable by density. Only calcareous antimonyite has a density of 3.14 g/cm³, and its average drop ratio is only 1.29, making it a relatively difficult ore to separate.

Gravity separation is generally cheaper than flotation and can be used as a pre-selection process to remove a large amount of gangue before entering flotation. Due to the difficulty of flotation of antimony oxide ores, gravity separation is still the primary method at present.