Energy Conservation and Integrated Water Jet Mining and Milling

High-pressure water jets are able to disintegrate mineral-bearing ores into small size fractions at the mining face, liberating the various constituent grains, and enabling an initial separation of the valuable constituents of the ore and the gangue. This will have a great impact in the reduction of energy costs, especially in the transportation, crushing, and grinding operations, bringing savings in the economy for mining companies. This paper describes the series of factorial experiments carried out with sandstone with nodules of hematite samples, dolomite samples, and galena samples, where this concept for high-pressure water jets is applied. Essentially, a water jet of between 100 and 140MPa, traveling at 10cm/min and rotating at 180 RPM, will disaggregate a galena-bearing ore from Southeast Missouri, USA, such that over half of the particles will pass a 100-mesh screen (minus 149 microns). © BHR Group 2006 Water Jetting