Author(s)

David C. Yang, Ricus van Reenan, Vimal Bhimsan

Apic Toll Treatment (Pty) Ltd, Parktown, South Africa.
Mineral Technologies International, Inc., Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.
Mintek, Randburg, South Africa.

The emerging Yang jig technology offers sharp separation of fine particles by the difference in their specific gravity. Mixed particles are fed either wet or dry into an inlet near the top of a column that is packed by corrugated plates, and the pulse water enters near the bottom. Heavy particles migrate downward and light particles move upward with the drag force imparted by a net up-flow stream of liquid being channeled through a large number of jigging cells. The multi-cell design enables repetitive separation actions as the particles travel in opposite vertical directions and allows precise concentration at high capacities with no short-circuiting. When a steady-state condition is reached, particles are stratified in a well-defined density gradient. The concentrated heavy particles discharge from the bottom, while the light particles overflow through a top launder. Scale-up is nearly linear with the separator volume. This paper presents basic principles of the process and its applications for recovery of metals from slag, especially ferroalloys. A commercial jig plant has been installed in South Africa to recover metal concentrate of 97% grade at 76% metal recovery from minus 1mm ferrochrome slag far exceeding conventional gravity methods.

Separation, Metals, Multi-cell Jig

D. Yang, R. Reenan and V. Bhimsan, "Separation of Metals from a Slag Using a Multi-cell Jig," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 2 No. 2, 2003, pp. 137-144. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2003.22011.