Combination of gravity concentration variables to increase the productivity of the Brucutu mineral processing plant

The jigging process is one of the oldest ways used to concentrate ores in the world, suitable for small and medium-sized employability, and is composed of a pre-concentration step as a way to reduce costs. Within this perspective, a test campaign for laboratorial mineral concentration was set up, in order to determine the main variables (and their interactions) that may have an influence on the concentration of iron ore from the Quadrilatero Ferrifero by the jigging process. A factorial planning was prepared so that an accurate statistical analysis of experiments could be performed. A combination of the three variables were studied (feed granulometry, background layer, and bed mass) promoted an iron recovery equal to 73.14%, a distribution of silica of 89.05% on the tailing and a selectivity index of 3.80. Thus, the methodology enabled a useful statistical evaluation and can contribute to decision-making regarding the parameters of interest in the jigging process.