Optimization Studies of Hydrocyclone for Beneficiation of Iron Ore Slimes

Hydrocyclone is a key unit operation in mineral-processing industry for beneficiation of mineral values that uses centrifugal force to separate materials by density or size. The optimization of different operating parameters of hydrocyclone is gaining importance to achieve the best performance. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to develop statistical models using design of experiment technique and optimize the model parameters using the Nelder-Mead multidimensional pattern search technique to obtain a product of desired grade and recovery. Hydrocyclone parameters such as spigot diameter (mm), vortex finder diameter (mm), solids consistency (%), pressure (psi), and dispersant (gms/kg) are optimized to recover iron values from iron ore slime generated at iron ore washing plant. Addition of dispersant significantly improved the separation efficiency. The maximum iron grade and recovery predicted by the model is 65.0% and 60%, respectively, for a iron ore slime sample containing 57.84Fe, 6.0% Al2O3, and 6.7% of SiO2.