Dolcoathguy
10 years ago
Thanks Knocker.
In it is in the October presentation - interestingly they mention 460 tpa of Tin, so some processing for Tin must be available (which is to marketed by Traxys).
Is it safe to come out of the bunker yet?
Knocker
10 years ago
Yes Tin will be produced as a secondary product. The process for extracting both tin and wolfram is very similar, due to both having a similar high SG. The main difference between hemerdons Mill and Crofty/Geevors old mills is the DMS at Crofty/Geevor was used for a rough seperartion - the float was reject, the sinks were processed. At Hemerdon the sinks are ultimately product - there is little processing behind it. The undersize which doesn't go to the DMS is tabled - At crofty the sinks were ground, classified and tabled. Crofty had somewhere in the region of 100 shaking tables - Hemerdon has 3 and the mill has over 10 times the throughput! As someone said if it was ground, being so heavily Kaolinised you would end up with a lot of slimes, which absolutely screws up shaking tables as the materials can't seperate.

Once the seperation at Hemerdon is done, it is ground, it then goes through a froth flotation section (To remove the Arsenic - Again like Crofty) followed by a final magnetic seperation to seperate the tin from the wolfram (Wolfram is more magnetically susceptible than tin), again this was the final stage at crofty who used to sell small amounts of Wolfram.

I think you could put Crofty's ore through Hemerdon and get a product at the end of it, but your recovery percentages would be apalling in comparison to Crofty and ultimately Wheal Janes Mills (Wheal Jane was very different in that the major seperation process was froth flotation due to the sulphide nature of Wheal Jane).

The basics of seperation is the smaller you grind, the more mineral you liberate from the waste, which means the more you recover. However if you over grind you screw it right up! The other thing to remember is the relationship between grinding size and electricity cost is an inverse square relationship - you half the size - you quadruple the power requirement!
Tamarmole
10 years ago
"Knocker" wrote:

Yes Tin will be produced as a secondary product. The process for extracting both tin and wolfram is very similar, due to both having a similar high SG. The main difference between hemerdons Mill and Crofty/Geevors old mills is the DMS at Crofty/Geevor was used for a rough seperartion - the float was reject, the sinks were processed. At Hemerdon the sinks are ultimately product - there is little processing behind it. The undersize which doesn't go to the DMS is tabled - At crofty the sinks were ground, classified and tabled. Crofty had somewhere in the region of 100 shaking tables - Hemerdon has 3 and the mill has over 10 times the throughput! As someone said if it was ground, being so heavily Kaolinised you would end up with a lot of slimes, which absolutely screws up shaking tables as the materials can't seperate.

Once the seperation at Hemerdon is done, it is ground, it then goes through a froth flotation section (To remove the Arsenic - Again like Crofty) followed by a final magnetic seperation to seperate the tin from the wolfram (Wolfram is more magnetically susceptible than tin), again this was the final stage at crofty who used to sell small amounts of Wolfram.

I think you could put Crofty's ore through Hemerdon and get a product at the end of it, but your recovery percentages would be apalling in comparison to Crofty and ultimately Wheal Janes Mills (Wheal Jane was very different in that the major seperation process was froth flotation due to the sulphide nature of Wheal Jane).

The basics of seperation is the smaller you grind, the more mineral you liberate from the waste, which means the more you recover. However if you over grind you screw it right up! The other thing to remember is the relationship between grinding size and electricity cost is an inverse square relationship - you half the size - you quadruple the power requirement!



Very informative - :thumbsup:
somersetminer
10 years ago
"Knocker" wrote:

Yes Tin will be produced as a secondary product. The process for extracting both tin and wolfram is very similar, due to both having a similar high SG. The main difference between hemerdons Mill and Crofty/Geevors old mills is the DMS at Crofty/Geevor was used for a rough seperartion - the float was reject, the sinks were processed. At Hemerdon the sinks are ultimately product - there is little processing behind it. The undersize which doesn't go to the DMS is tabled - At crofty the sinks were ground, classified and tabled. Crofty had somewhere in the region of 100 shaking tables - Hemerdon has 3 and the mill has over 10 times the throughput! As someone said if it was ground, being so heavily Kaolinised you would end up with a lot of slimes, which absolutely screws up shaking tables as the materials can't seperate.

Once the seperation at Hemerdon is done, it is ground, it then goes through a froth flotation section (To remove the Arsenic - Again like Crofty) followed by a final magnetic seperation to seperate the tin from the wolfram (Wolfram is more magnetically susceptible than tin), again this was the final stage at crofty who used to sell small amounts of Wolfram.

I think you could put Crofty's ore through Hemerdon and get a product at the end of it, but your recovery percentages would be apalling in comparison to Crofty and ultimately Wheal Janes Mills (Wheal Jane was very different in that the major seperation process was froth flotation due to the sulphide nature of Wheal Jane).

The basics of seperation is the smaller you grind, the more mineral you liberate from the waste, which means the more you recover. However if you over grind you screw it right up! The other thing to remember is the relationship between grinding size and electricity cost is an inverse square relationship - you half the size - you quadruple the power requirement!



Nice one, useful info there knocker. Having helped to drill monitoring holes there recently I can confirm theres quite a difference between the pre china clay crap coming up and the hard granites at Crofty
Alasdair Neill
10 years ago

Press releases recently and today (WMN) regarding pit geotechnical drilling which aims to make more ore available by possible steepening of the pit wall design, also locating new mineralisation, & a SE extension outside current planning consent area.
somersetminer
10 years ago
Possible 23% reserve extension, depending on planning approval. For anyone interested, drilled by the same lot who drilled over the Treliver deposit last winter
Knocker
10 years ago
Between the two elements thats a potential for nearly a 50% increase in reserves, with negligible additional capital expenditure. There is still potential for underground development after all that is worked out as well.

Disclaimer: Mine exploring can be quite dangerous, but then again it can be alright, it all depends on the weather. Please read the proper disclaimer.
© 2005 to 2023 AditNow.co.uk

Dedicated to the memory of Freda Lowe, who believed this was worth saving...