Sorption of Rhenium from Concentration Products of Placers of Concentrate Gold by Magnetic Liquid Separation

Abstract

Separation in ferromagnetic liquid (FML) is recommended for separating gold from concentration products of placers. Magnetic liquid separation is based on the appearance in FML of a ponderomotive force of a nonuniform magnetic liquid additional to the gravity buoyancy force. A horizontal component of this force in the separation medium bulk participates in the body motion along the equipotential surface across the working zone—to separation cuvette walls and towards the central plane of the pole gap, while the longitudinal component is directed along it. In order to increase process characteristics, it is recommended to limit transverse motions of bodies by vertical partitions established in the separation medium along the separator pole gap. It follows from the results of a theoretical investigation into the particle motion in a separator working zone that the influence of walls manifests itself in the appearance of the counterflow to the particle motion, which causes the rise of the hydrodynamic drag force and deceleration of the particle motion. It is shown that, in the presence of vertical walls, shortening the residence time of a light concentrate fraction in a separator working zone promotes the rise of process productivity in regards to the initial feed and productivity in regards to a heavy fraction (recovery of gold into the heavy fraction). Research tests of competitive separation methods for artificial mixtures of minerals and heavy gold-bearing concentrates are performed using methods of mathematical experiment design. It is proven that, when passing from separation in the FML volume to separation using the developed method, the apparatus productivity increases by 9%, while the recovery of gold into the heavy fraction increases from 84.34 to 91.77% due to a decrease in losses with a light fraction from 15.46 to 7.96%. The material containing gold in amounts more than 800 kg/t is acquired with a decrease in the yield of a heavy fraction by 11 rel. %.