Attempt of Determining Optimal Values of Mineral Raw Materials Beneficiation Factors

Abstract

The methods of determining so-called optimal conditions of mineral raw materials beneficiation were presented in the paper. The copper ore from deposits of KGHM Polska Miedź, region Polkowice as well one of hard coals originated from Upper Silesia, coal mine Janina were selected to the research. It was stated that on the basis of balance equation is possible to determine optimal characteristics of beneficiated material. To determine the optimal point, Authors used commonly known upgrading curves, i.e. Halbich, Fuerstenau and Madej curves. For all of them the criteria of selecting optimal point were accepted as the point of the largest curvature. However, it occurred that for relation between sums of recovery in concentrate and sums of residuals recovery in tailings is possible to determine the extreme point which can be treated as the technological optimum. Accepting that α = const we face the problem of determining a conditional extreme of function of sums of useful component recovery in concentrate and sums of residuals recovery in tailings of two variables β and ϑ. This methodology was used for chosen copper ore and chosen hard coal. However it occurred that selection of the optimal point in the method of sums of recoveries is also ambiguous. It is worthy to notice that selection of technological optimum for researched raw material is also evaluation of its susceptibility to beneficiation. The whole paper was ended with conclusions.