US2946442A - Multi-cone ore concentration apparatus - Google Patents

Description

July 26, 1960 F. w. HACK MULTI-CONE ORE CONCENTRATION APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 20, 1954 IHVEHTUP fiZMAk h/ //4c July 26, 1960 F. w. HACK 2,946,442

MULTI-CONE ORE CONCENTRATION APPARATUS Filed Dec. 20, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .FJg. 4

IZYVEZZfUP fiw/w M Aha/z Unitfid ttes Patent MULTI-CONE ORE CONCENTRATION APPARATUS Frank W. Hack, 122648 Harding Ave, Des Piaines, Ill.

Filed Dec. 20, 1954, Ser. No. 476,276

'5 Claims. (Cl. 209-482) The present invention relates to the art of processing mineral bearing ores to increase the concentration of valuable minerals in the ore relative to the valueless earth materials with which the minerals are mixed. More particularly, the invention relates to apparatus for concentrating the values of a mineral bearing ore in arcompletely dry state and in the absence of any chemicals or thelike.

For many yea-rs persons active in the mining arts have attempted to perfect an apparatus for effectively concentrating mineral ores. The search for such an apparatus has been intensive since there are large areas in the ,United States, and the rest of the world, where .fair grade ores are available but where water is almost impossible to obtain. Even in localities where some water ;is 'to be had, the difiiculty of obtaining it is such that low grade ores have not been commercially exploited as a result of the excessive costs involved. Further, existing ore treatment apparatuses and methods have failed, even though utilizing liquids, to satisfactorily remove valuable minerals from extremely low grade ores or to remove some of the lighter, yet valuable, minerals from ore.

In addition to the general demand for an apparatus for concentrating ore as outlined above, it has also been desired'that a substantially portable arrangement be utilized which is independent of water or other liquids. This has been considered extremely desirable since in many instances mine openings are at very high altitudes and otherwise inaccessible, so that it is highly advantageous to be able to concentrate mineral ores efiiciently at the mine entrance to reduce the tonnage of material 'that must be laboriously shipped out to a smelter. =In the past, as a result of the lack of satisfactory portable equipment capable of ore treatment or concentration without external ingredients such as water, large numbers of otherwise valuable mining properties have'gone unworked as inaccessible for practical purposesand hence commercially impracticable.

The present invention on the other hand provides an apparatus for ore treatment whereby dry ore is concentrated to many times the concentration of the ore as mined or previously discarded. According to the present invention, ore containing valuable materials to be removed therefrom is crushed to an extremely fine condition. This fine ore, preferably of a size permitting "100% passage through a 60 mesh screen and 1a s1ib stantial' passage through a 200 mesh screen, is ..then agitated in a manner which I prefer to'term 'a' mechanical backwash. By this agitation, whereinthe ore is moved from a first position to 'a second position .by rneans of a series of cyclical oscillations or agitations, the portions of the ore not hearing minerals" are, .in effect, moved 'Q1 washed 'backwardly and the mineral bearing portions of the ore progress to the secondpoint :for, removal to a smelter.

Th c a s e sa bask-Wash t m nll RIP ing practice.

2,946,442 Patented July 26 1 960 ice I 2 vided, in accordance with the present invention, by means of distributing the ore onto the inside surface of a frpstoconical element constructed of sheet metal and which is rotating about its conical axis which is in turn inclined substantially from the vertical. In practice, it has been found that such a sheet metal cone rotating about an axis of inclination such that material lying on the inside surface of the cone must travel slightly upwardly to reach the axis of the cone, will effectively discard asu'bstantial percentage of non-mineral bearing elements of the ore 'out through the op n end of the cone and will direct the remaining, concentrated, mineral bearingelements upwardly toward the axis of the cone for collectionf This concentrated ore may then'be removed and smelted, and as a result of its high concentration, it may be readily shipped at a small fraction of the cost of transportation ordinarily incident to conventional min- Further, in" view of its great fineness, the transportation is simplified and in many instances where the mining operations are to be carried on at high altitudes it becomes practical totransport the dry, extremely fine, concentrated ore through small diameter pipes under the influence of gravity'either unaided or aided by means of forced air. i

-It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel method of ore concentration.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of ore concentration whereby ore may be mechanically worked in a dry state to decrease the proportion of non-mineral bearing material therein. H

Still another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for ore concentration wherein a mechanical backwash is provided. i 4

Yet a;further object of the present invention is to provide mechanical agitation means for removing non-mineral' bearing elements from ore originally containing such non-mineral heating elements in combination with mineral-bearing elements. a Yet a further object ofthe present invention is to provide an extremely efficient apparatus for the refinement of mineral bearing material. i a a v 'A feature of the invention is a rotary sheet metal conical structure-having an axis of rotation substantially inclined from the vertical. a V

Yet a further feature of the invention resides in the provision of means for directing unconcentrated oreto a position in the middle of aninternal conical surface for separation into mineral bearing and non-mineral hearing elements. A a

Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a means for removing even minute traces of valuable minerals from ores having mineral contents heretofore considered too low for practical processes.

, Yet another object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for treatingdry material to thereby remove," selectively, the heavy, relatively fine, portions thereof. "-Still other and further objects and features of the present invention'will at once becomeapparent to those "skilled in the art from aconsideration of the attached sheets of drawings wherein preferred embodiments of the present'invention are s own by way'nf illustration only and, wherein: i T Figure 1 is a side elevational view of ore concentratiug apparatus constructedaccording to one. form of the present invention; l

,EigureZZ is across-sectional view of the apparatus shown in Figure 1 taken along the line.lI--II tl'iereof;

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view, partially broken away, of the feed mechanism utilized in connection with the apparatus shown in Figure 1 taken along line -IV-IV; and

Figure 5 is a modified form of the structure shown in Figure 3 and capable of further concentrating certain types of ore or the like.

As shown on the drawings:

As was noted above, the present system envisages theconcentration of mineral bearing ores after the ore has been initially crushed. Preferably, ore to be treated is first passed through a high speed rotary crusher of the type described in my Patent No. 2,607,539, granted August 19, 1952. Such a crusher very satisfactorily crushes lump quartz or similar materials from chunks inches in diameter to a crushed product having a maximum dimension of A inch. The material is then passed through a series of grinding rolls in which it is reduced to a minus 60 mesh, or material capable of 100% passage through a 60 mesh screen. This material which in practice will consist of particles from slightly under 60 mesh size down to approximately 250 mesh size, is then concentrated in the apparatus shownin the drawings. While my own crusher, set forth in the above identified patent, is admirably suited to the work of crushing mineral bearing materials, it will be understood that any crushing apparatus capable of supplying ore at a size of approximately 60 mesh and smaller will adequately satisfy the requirements of the present systern.

As shown in Figure l, a multicone concentrator, generally indicated at 10 is pivotally mounted at 11 to a rigid base frame member 12; As may be seen, the concentrator 10 is provided with a sub-frame 13 which cooperates with the pivot shaft 11 at one end and which carries an adjustable supporting mechanism at the other. The adjustable supporting mechanism comprises a gear 14 driven through reduction gearing, preferably of the worm and worm wheel type, by means of a manual hand crank 15. The gear 14 cooperates with gear teeth on the rack 16 which is maintained against the gear 14 by means of a reaction roller 17. The rack 16 is in turn pivotally secured at 17 to the frame 12. While only one rack and gear set is shown, it will be understood that a second similar set is provided on the back side of the machine to provide for uniform support of the left hand end of the sub-frame 13.

The concentrator apparatuscarried by theisub-frame 13 comprises a series of generally conical elements 20 secured, preferably by welding, to a tubular core. 21 supported in the end walls 22 and 23 of the closure housing, by means of antifriction bearings 24 and 25, re-

spectively. Each of the cones 20 is constructed of rel- Preferably all the cones 2d are identicaL- 26 thus extends from an aperture on an inner circle of one cone to an apertureon the outer circle of the next, and so on moving from left to right as viewed in Figure 1. In this manner, each of the cones is braced to the cone preceding it as well as the cone succeeding it in position on the hollow, tubular, core '21. This bracing structure coupled with bracing structure rigidly securing the cone 20 at the left hand end of the series of cones to the core 21 provides an extremely rigid core assembly.

Additional support for the system is provided by means of a heavy duty cone 20a secured to the tubular core 21 in the manner identical to that described above relative to the remaining cones 20. The cone 20a is,

apparatusfor the controlled movement of the ore.

however, preferably constructed of either heavy plate material or is a casting. Either of these constructions permits the cone 29a to provide a load carrying function and as such it is supported by a pair of roller bearings 30 secured to the sub-frame 13 by means of cross member 31. While only such brace with support bearings 30 is illustrated, it will be understood that if additional bracing of the series of cones intermediate the length of the core 21 is desired, additional heavy bracing cones 20a may be provided at spaced intervals. This bracing substantially eliminates fatigue failures of the tubular core 21, as well as failures of the sheet metal cones 20 through continued flexing at the brace bolts '26 which would occur in the absence of suitable support bearings 30.

The mineral containing .ore of approximately minus 60 mesh is fed into each of the cones 20 individually by means of a main feed tube 32 and individual feed tubes 33. It is desired, that the material be fed into the individual tubes 33 on a substantially equal basis and in view of the inclination of the main feed tube 32, provision is made for preventing the bulk of the material from being fed into the first few tubes 33. This is accomplished in the present invention, as shown in Figure 4, by means of positioning the metering apertures 34 for the individual feed tubes 33 along a slightly helical path relative to the axis of the tube 32. Thus, as shown in Figures 2 and 4, with the agitator 35 rotating in a clockwise direction, the first opening 34a is positioned adjacent a horizontal line drawn through the axis of the tube 34 while the succeeding openings 34 approach closer and closer to the bottom of the tube 32 until the final opening 34b is on an axis substantially vertical relative to the axis of the tube 32. As a result of this relatively helical positioning of the openings 34 in the tube 32- it is somewhat more diflicult for the ore to pass out through the initial openings than through the later ones and accordingly a relatively even distribution of materials into the series of cones 20 is provided.

In addition to the helical arrangement of the openings 34 distribution is materially aided by means of the rotary agitator 35. This agitatorv comprises, as shown in Figure 4, a shaft 36 carrying a pair of cross members 37 between which a pair of link chains 38 are secured. It has been found that the perforate nature of the chains, as well as their flexibility provides an extremely efficient Besides eliminating any tendency of the ore to form lumps, the chains prevent the ore from moving too rapidly down the tube 32 to thereby overload the lower feed tubes 34,

Drive mechanism, for rotating the tubular shaft 21 and the agitator 35, is preferably provided by means of an electric motor 40 secured to the base 12. Although it will be apparent that numerous drive connections may be employed for transmitting the power from the motor 40 to the shafts 21 and 36, one satisfactory method is shown in Figure 1. As may'there be seen, the motor is provided with a worm shaft 41 which rotates a worm wheel 42 loosely mounted on the pivot shaft 11. A sec ond worm wheel is secured to the worm wheel 42 and rotates in turn a second worm 43 which cooperates with the worm wheel 44 secured to the shaft 21. The shaft 36 is then driven fromthe shaft 21'by means of a pair of variable pulleys 45 and 46, and the V-belt 47 to provide selectively variable flow through the metering apertures '34. This drive construction is operative independently of the angle assumed by the concentrator structure since power is delivered from the motor to the concentrator at a point coaxial with the pivot 11. It will be understood, however, that'various types of drive systems, including variable speed flexible drive shafts or V-belt connections can successfully be utilized without departing from the scope of the present invention. 7 i

The operation of the concentrator apparatus may be understood from consideration of Figure 3 wherein a;

.fand relatively little bounce.

singlecone is shown in operating position. With the cone rotating clockwise as viewed in the direction of the arrow shown in Figure 3, material is deposited on the cone and is immediately moved, with the surface of the cone, upwardly in the direction of the arrow 50. After a movement upwardly and forwardly in the direction of the arrow 50, the individual grains of the ore material fall away from the wall of the cone, as a result of thepull of gravity, and accordingly drop the path straight toward the earth, as shown by arrow 51. Since, as indicated above, the axis of the cone is adjusted so that the wall of the cone lies at an angle 6 to the horizontal, gravity will continue to move the particles in the direction of the arrow 52. As a result of the above tendency for particles to move first upwardly and forwardly, then downwardly, and then backwardly, a mechanical backwash is achieved.

It has been found that the backwash above described is highly selective in its operation. Actually, the movement of any individual particle along the paths indicated by the arrows t), 51 and 52 depends upon gravitational forces, centrifugal forces, frictional forces between the cone, surfaces and the material, the hardness and bounce -characteristics of the individual particle as well as the effects of cohesion and adhesion between particles and the center of gravity of the individual particle. In miu ing. practice, it has been found that the pure mineral,

such as gold, silver or the like, as well as its oxides or other compounds in which it appears in nature, have fairly high effective frictional coefiicient characteristics pounds containing the minerals are ordinarily substantially heavier than the non-mineral bearing components with which they are ordinarily mixed in the known ores. As aresult of this fact, the minerals and their compounds have a decided tendency to advance up the inclined wall or the cone in a direction opposite to the arrow 52, toward openings 53 in the tube 21.

In moving toward the openings 53, the heavier elements, containing the minerals, tend to sift down against the surface of the cone where they frictionally grip the cone surface and ride along with the surface of the cone "in the direction of the arrow 50 a longer distance than the lighter, undesirable elements. Accordingly, the un- "desirable elements stay on the top of the mass of material and, as a result of their high bounce characterisftic and light weight fall downwardly onto the top of the "mass of material and bounce downwardly toward the left. In view of the relatively high bounce characteristics of non-mineral bearing materials such as, for exam- ;ple, quartz, there is a strong tendency for such materials fto'bou'nce, in a series of bounces, ofi the left hand lip of th'econe as at 54 into the discard trough 55 immediately -ii'nder the cones. On the other hand, the heavier materials bounce to a substantially lesser degree and as a result of their rather increased frictional coeflicients, tend to, remain much less mobile than the lighter non-mineral bearing components. Accordingly, while the mineral tcontaining portions of the ore will follow the cycle shown ';by the arrows 50, 51 and 52, the frictional tendencies x will prevent movement of the ore backwardly, or toward Such of the axis'of the cones and, accordingly, an "extremely fine adjustment is provided in the form of the gearing 14 which is associated with the rack 16. In actual practice,-for concentrating ores having a combination'of'min- Additionally, the com lcritical in its operation and will satisfactorily separate Tinaterials having only slight physical differences. niaterialsfmay require slightly different angular settings erals such as gold, silver, lead, etc., it has been found that an angle of 0 equaling approximately 4 .is quite satisfactory.

flhe operation of the series of cones is substantially identical to that described above, except that in View of the fact that each individual cone will dispense concentrated ore into the tube 211, deflector, or cover, plates 58 must be provided for covering the apertures 53. These cover plates satisfactorily prevent concentrated ore from moving back outwardly through the openings 53 under the pressure of accumulated concentrate in the tube 21. It will thus be apparent that the individual cones operate substantially in parallel and, accordingly, the output of the concentrating apparatus is directly proportional to the number of individual cones 20 used therewith. While approximately thirty such cones in a single machine have been found to operate at a high level of efliciency it will be understood that more or less cones may be utilized, and that if desired a single cone where a single cone is to be used, the heads, or crushed ore, may be introduced into the cone in a batch and the minerals may be individually taken off at the center of the cone sequentially as separate compounds, while the tails pass off over the outer lip of the cone. For 'example, in experimental mining operations, it was found possible to mechanically remove concentrates "of lead and zinc separately from ore containing both elements in compound. Such selectivity is, of course, not used when a large series of cones are used together and the continuous output is removed by way of a single rotating tubular core such as shown at 21 in the drawings.

Additionally, when a single cone 20 is to be used, or when cones are to be operated in series rather than in parallel, the apertures 53 may be placed in the cones 20 immediately adjacent the cone support tube 21 rather than in the tube 21.

When the equipment above disclosed is to be utilized with a specific ore or to concentrate materials having a particular substance therein to be removed, it may be desirable to provide a concentrator cone of somewhat different configuration from that shown at 20. Thus, the somewhat more critical structure shown in Figure 5 may be found desirable in such instances. The concentrator cone shown in Figure 5 comprises a generally bell-shaped structure having a curvature substantially logarithmic in nature. Thus, the bell-shaped construction is substantially conical at its point of attachment to 'the tube 21 and flares outwardly substantially adjacent its outer rim or lip, with the rate of outward curvature increased as the rim is approached. Ithas been found 'that such a'structure provides a somewhat sharper line between the tails, or discards, and the material fed into the openings 53. Although the adjustment of the cone or bell 20b shown in Figure 5 is much more critical than that of the straight cone shown in Figure 3, it 'm'ay be adjusted to accurately concentrate on a more selective basis.

Still further modifications may be employed inthe concentrator structure shown in Figure 3, Without departiug'from the scope'of the present invention. For exam- Qple, it will be understood that corrugations may be pro 'vided in'the surface of the cones for increasing the frictional contact of the materials with the cone. While such astep is not necessary to one handling most ores, it 'Willbe found in some cases to improve the separation characteristics, especially where the tails, omenvaluable portions of the ore have a very great tendency to bounce freely, relative to the material having minerals in high concentration.

' As above described, the concentrator 'ltl may be 'utilized with substantially any type 'of prior'crushing equipment 'capable'of supplying crushed ore of approximately minus "60 mesh at: the upper or left hand entrance to the fe'ed' tube3-2' as viewed in Figure l. Additionally,-=in

may be used. In fact, it is to be noted that in the case' order to assure ready flow of the material into and through the tube 32, an impactor is preferably provided, as at 57, at the tube inlet. This impactor scours the ore as it enters the concentrator it) and assures that no lumps are present which might interfere with proper distribution through the tubes 33. Power for rotation of the impact elements of the impactor 57 may be derived from the shaft 36 or, alternatively, from a separate motor drive.

The concentrating apparatus above described has been found in practice to provide a concentration of ores tested of at least 4 to l and in some cases as much as 10 to 1. In other words, it has been discovered that ores heretofore commercially unfeasible for profitable mining operations were concentrated to a point where the ore was well worth smeltering, and ores of an initially high value were concentrated to a dollar value at least four times that of the value of the ore as initially presented to the concentrating apparatus. In view of the relatively light nature of the machinery here involved, and its extremely efficient concentration of ore, it has been found that the present apparatus permits the operation of mines heretofore considered worn out or useless. Further, the equipment has proved effective in the treatment of marginal ores of such important elements as uranium where the mineral percentages in the ore have run relatively small in this country.

It will thus be understood that I have provided a novel and greatly improved structure for the treatment of ore, whereby the values or valuable minerals in an ore may be substantially increased per ton of concentrated ore, thereby permitting the reclamation of large amounts of valuable minerals heretofore considered unavailable to mankind.

It will further be understood that variations and modifications may be made in the structure above set forth without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the present invention and it is accordingly my intent that the present invention be limited solely by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A dry ore concentrator comprising a tubular shaft, a plurality of sheet metal elements of increasing diameter secured in nested relation to said shaft at their respective points of least diameter, means rotatably supporting said shaft at an angle to the horizontal for rotating said elements about an inclined axis whereby any given point on the inside surface of the respective elements moves from a position having a slight incline relative to the horizontal in the opposite direction to the incline of said shaft to a generally upright inverted position, means for placing finely divided ore on the inside surface of said element, apertures in said shaft adjacent the junctions of said elements therewith and a baffle plate positioned in- .side said shaft above each aperture therein for prevent ing material moving down said shaft from passing laterally out through said apertures. j r

2. A dry ore concentrator comprising a tubular shaft, a plurality of frusto-conical sheet metal elements of increasing diameter secured in nested relation to said shaft .at their respective points of least diameter, means rotatably supporting said shaft at an angle to the horizontal for rotating said elements about an inclined axis .whereby any given point on the inside surface of the respective elements moves from a position having a slight incline relative to the horizontal in the opposite direction to the incline of said shaft to a generally upright inverted position, means porting said shaft to the spaces between adjacent elements, baffle means preventing how of ore from said shaft outwardly into the space as between adjacent elements, and means for adjusting the angle of inclination of said shaft. p

3. A dry ore concentrator comprising a tubular shaft, a plurality of sheet metal elements of increasing diameter secured innested relation to said shaft at their respective points of least diameter, means rotatably supporting said shaft at an angle to the horizontal for rotating said elements about an inclined axis whereby any given point on the inside surface of the respective elements moves from a position having a slight incline relative to the horizontal in the opposite direction to the incline of said shaft to a generally upright inverted position, means for placing finely divided ore on the inside surface of said element, apertures in said shaft adjacent the junctions of said elements therewith, a bafile plate positioned inside said shaft above each aperture therein for preventing material moving down said shaft from passing laterally out through said apertures, enclosure means surrounding said elements and having an aperture in the bottom thereof for discarding non-mineral bearing portions of said ore, and discharge means at the lower end of said tubular shaft for accumulating concentrated ore.

4. A'dry ore concentrator comprising a tubular shaft, a plurality of sheet metal elements of increasing diameter secured in nested relation to said shaft at their respective points of least diameter, means rotatably supporting said shaft at an angle to the horizontal for rotating said elements about an inclined axis whereby any given point on the inside surface of the respective elements moves from a position having a slight incline relative to the horizontal in the opposite direction to the incline of said shaft to a generally upright inverted position, means for placing finely divided ore on the inside surface of said element, apertures in said shaft adjacent thejunctions of said elements therewith and a baflle plate positioned inside said shaft above each aperture therein for preventing material moving down said shaft from passing laterally out through said aperture, said means for placing finely divided material on the inside surface of said elements comprising a main feed tube extending substantially parallel to said tubular shaft at a point thereaboveand a plurality of individual feed tubes extending from said main feed tube toward said tubular shaft and extending between adjacent elements.

- 5. A dry ore concentrator comprising a tubular shaft,

a plurality of sheet metal elements of increasing diameter secured in nested relation to said shaft at their respective points of least diameter, means rotatably supporting said shaft at an angle to the horizontal for rotating said elements about an inclined axis whereby any given point on the inside surface of the respective elements moves from a position having a slight incline relative to the horizontal in the opposite direction to the incline of said shaft to a generally upright inverted position, means for placing finely divided ore on the inside surface of said element, apertures in said shaft adjacent the junctions of said elements therewith and a baffle plate positioned inside said shaft above each aperture thereln for preventing material moving down said shaft from passing laterally out through said aperture, said means for placing finely divided material on the inside surface of said elements comprising a main, feed tube extending substantially parallel to said tubular shaft at a point there above and a plurality of individual feed tubes extending from said main feed tube toward said tubular shaft and extending between adjacent elements and means associated with said main feed tube for distributing said ore substantially evenly to said individual feed tubes.

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