Aufbereitungstechnische Rohgutcharakterisierung und Laboruntersuchungen an Flusssedimenten der Donau

This master's thesis examines the possibilities for processing river sediments from the Danube with the aim of enriching the heavy minerals in a marketable concentrate. For this purpose, various classification and sorting processes, which are to be installed and operated on a pontoon, are being tested for suitability based on precise raw material characterization. A milestone is the identification of the mineral phase inventory, which can be subject to considerable fluctuations depending on the extraction location. The mineral phases analyzed include components of garnet, muscovite, epidote, amphibole, clinochlore, ilmenite, cassiterite and kyanite.
In the process of raw material characterization, it was determined that the detected heavy minerals accumulate particularly in the grain size range 0,315/0,04 mm and are generally present there in liberated form. As part of the mineral processing investigations, various screening and uniformity classification devices were tested to produce this grain size class.
The fines produced in this way were further processed using the “Falcon Semi-Batch Concentrator Laboratory Model L40 R5.0” from Sepro Mineral Systems Corporation. It was shown that an enrichment of the heavy minerals into a bulk concentrate is possible. The sorting tests show that enrichment effects occur. During further investigations, possible optimization potentials are to be explored to enable an economic use of the heavy mineral concentrate.
Parallel to the laboratory tests, an initial process concept for a possible processing plant was developed. The processing plant developed consists of a roller grate with a mesh size of 200 mm located above a feed bunker, a linear motion vibrating screen with a mesh size of 10 mm and a flip-flow screen with a mesh size of 1 mm. The grain fractions > 200 mm, 200/10 mm and 10/1 mm produced in this way are discharged directly into the motorized barge. The grain fraction < 1 mm is fed into a hydrocyclone, which classifies at a separation cut of 40 µm. The hydrocyclone overflow < 40 µm can either be discharged directly into the Danube or onto the motorized barge. The hydrocyclone underflow 1/0.04 mm is fed into a centrifuge for concentrate enrichment. The light fraction is added to the motorized barge, the heavy fraction is the heavy mineral concentrate, which is temporarily stored in big bags, for example.