Development of method to assess separation process taking into account rheological properties of mineral slurry

Abstract

This article considers the possibility of developing a methodology for assessing the separation process of gold-sulfide raw materials, taking into account the rheological characteristics of the mineral suspension. The object of the study is the ore of the Mayskoye deposit, which is subjected to fine crushing followed by cyanidation, so the consideration of rheological properties is the most important aspect of achieving the necessary enrichment performance. In the course of the research, using the object-oriented programming language Python 3.8, a program for calculating the empirical coefficients of the three-component rheological equation was developed. The resulting equation is the determinant for the shear stress within the suspension as a function of the velocity gradient. The developed program has been used to calculate coefficients of rheological equations for three variants of solid concentration in feed which correspond to the minimum, average and maximum for hydrocyclone used in the research (400 g/l, 500 g/l and 700 g/l respectively). Then, using the Ansys Fluent software, the multiphase classification modeling problem in the hydrocyclone was solved, resulting in shear rate profiles in the cross-section of the apparatus, from which the conditions necessary for the suspension to reach a fully dispersed state were concluded. It was determined that solid concentration 400 g/l is the optimum value that ensures maximum dispersion of the mineral slurry.