Development of a novel fluidized hydrocyclone concentrator for mineral separation

•Fluidized hydrocyclone concentrator (FHC) separates heavy minerals continuously.•Theoretical analysis of particle separation was investigated in the FHC.•The main structure compositions and separation performance of the FHC were discussed.•Separation experiment results validates the theoretical analysis. The current centrifugal concentrators do not continuously concentrate heavy minerals of large mass weight, such as for the processing of iron oxides. With attempt to solve this problem, a novel Fluidized Hydrocyclone Concentrator (FHC) was designed using hydrocyclone and centrifugal concentration principles for continuous separation of large production of heavy minerals. In this work, the separation performance of the FHC concentrator was investigated with theoretical analysis and experimental test. The analysis indicated that in the FHC concentrator, minerals may be separated into heavy and light fractions according to their density differences, through the fluidized holes in the separation cylinder of the concentrator, and they may be continuously discharged from the overflow and underflow pipes, respectively. The separation results indicated that the operating parameters have important influences on the performance of the concentrator, such as feed pressure, water inlet pressure, concentrating rings in separation cylinder, feed concentration, etc. Under suitable operating conditions, a concentrate assaying 56.45% Fe with 70.10% iron recovery was finally produced from a hematite-quartz mixture assaying 30.60% Fe, at a high mass weight reaching 38.00%. The theoretical analysis for the particle separation in FHC process were largely consistent with the experimental results. This novel FHC concentrator has provided a potential technical solution for the continuous centrifugal separation of abundant heavy minerals.