Effectiveness of Gravity Separation Methods for the Beneficiation of Baban Tsauni (Nigeria) Lead-Gold Ore

The response of Baban Tsauni (Nigeria) lead-gold ore to gravity separation methods was investigated in this research work. Value addition to run-off mines is always necessary in order to reduce downstream metal extraction costs. Gravity separation methods (the focus of this work) are the cheapest beneficiation methods. This study applied three gravity separation methods: jigging, multi-gravity and shaking table and measured the grades/ recoveries of the valuable minerals. Beneficiation of this ore by jigging method yielded the highest lead recovery of 86.9% at a grade of 56% for a geometric mean particle size of 421.31microns. Shaking table separation produced high grades but very low recoveries while the multigravity method gave the best combination of grade and recovery. Beneficiation by jigging method gave good lead recovery (above 75%) when particle size was bellow 1000μm but above 250μm while in multi-gravity separation particle size was bellow 500μm but above 125μm.