What's Gravity Separation?Applications of Gravity Separation

Gravity separation, also known as gravity concentration, is suitable for processing ores or other raw materials where there is a significant density difference between the valuable minerals and the gangue. It is an effective method for processing coarse, medium, and fine-grained ores (roughly defined as greater than 25 mm, 25-2 mm, and 2-0.1 mm). Its efficiency is not high when processing very fine mineral particles (less than 0.1 mm), although modern film flotation equipment can effectively recover particles down to 20-30 micrometers, and centrifugal separators can reach 10 micrometers.

Gravity separation is a traditional method for processing tungsten, tin, and gold ores, especially placer gold and tin deposits. It is also widely used in processing placer deposits containing rare metals (niobium, tantalum, titanium, zirconium, etc.). Gravity separation is also used to separate weakly magnetic iron ore, manganese ore, and chromium ore. In the coal preparation industry, gravity separation is the main method. In recent years, gravity separation has also developed in the non-metallic mineral processing industry, mainly used for processing asbestos, diamond, kaolin, apatite, pyrite, and other ores. In flotation plants for copper, lead, zinc, antimony, mercury, and other sulfide ores, gravity separation is often used for pre-concentration. In the main beneficiation process, gravity separation is often combined with other beneficiation processes to separate concentrates or tailings at an early stage in the coarse-grained state, which helps reduce production costs and minimize metal losses. When there are multiple methods available for processing a certain ore, gravity separation is always given priority.