The Mineral Beneficiation plant for separating metalliferous mineral from gangue is called a concentrator or a mill and the process is called concentration or milling.

Minerals are beneficiated in several ways. The operations employed for the beneficiation of minerals depends on:

Liberation size

Physical properties such as;

Specific gravity,

Surface property,

Magnetic susceptibility,

Electrical conductivity etc.

Required grade of the ore

Operating characteristics of the equipment used

Financial feasibility 

Detailed laboratory investigations are to be carried out in order to assess the various properties of the minerals present in the ore before planning for its beneficiation.

For the beneficiation of Iron ores, processes such as sizing, washing, gravity concentration like heavy medium separation, jigging, spiraling and magnetic separation are in use, after comminution to appropriate sizes.

Jigging and heavy medium separation operations are used for the beneficiation of Manganese ores. Spiraling and tabling are the major beneficiation operations for chrome ores.

In the case of lead,zinc and copper ores, valuables liberate when the ore is grounded down to 200 mesh. Froth flotation is employed for beneficiation of these ores.

Beach sand needs no comminution as the minerals are present in them as free particles.

Mainly magnetic and electrostatic separation operations are used for separation of Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Monazite etc.

Coal, is beneficiated principally by various types of heavy medium separation operations, Jigging, and flotation.

It is to be noted that it is not practically possible to achieve 100% liberation i.e., all the valuables will not detach during comminution. Hence the concentrate contains small amounts of gangue, and the tailing contains small amounts of valuable.

In some cases, a middling product, containing considerable amount of valuables, is obtained. In such cases, the middling product is indicative of more locked particles. Hence this product is again comminuted for more liberation and re-beneficiated to obtain valuables.

To get 100% liberation, all the ore is to be comminuted to a size far less than the grain size. This leads to consumption of more energy and time. Comminution operation becomes more costly. If beneficiation is done after this kind of comminution, the cost of the whole process will be high and may exceed the cost of the product. Hence such beneficiation is not practiced.

The various operations of a Beneficiation plant can be presented well in the form of a flow sheet. A flow sheet is a short way of representing the process adopted in a plant, equipment used and routing of the material, starting from raw material to finished product. Flow sheets vary greatly in form according to the information sought to be conveyed. The simplest form is to write various operations in sequence as employed in the plant (Figure.1). The most commonly used form is the flow sheet represented in simple block diagrams as shown in Figure.2. The flow sheet can be drawn in the diagrammatic form wherein the equipment used is represented by standard drawings and the flow path is represented by the arrows. Figure 3 shows the diagrammatic form of the Iron Ore Beneficiation Plant. Condensed flow sheets are useful for the study and comparison of practices followed in different parts of the mills.

The flow sheet is devised to make apparent at a glance the principal operations employed in the treatment scheme, the extent of each operation, the products made and the points at which they are taken out. The accessory apparatus such as storage bins, pumps, pipelines, belt conveyors, vibrating feeders, weighing equipment, measuring instruments, sampling apparatus, etc., and the reagents used in flotation machine are sometimes denoted by numbers which indicate relative location and refer to details in the accompanying list.

Fig1 Model flow sheet for beach sands beneficiation plant

Fig 2. Model flow sheet for chromite ore beneficiation plant

Figure 3 Model flow sheet for iron ore beneficiation plant

Figure 1 shows a model flow sheet for Beach Sands Beneficiation Plant in the form of simple writing of various operations and materials.

Figure 2 shows a model flow sheet for a Chromite Ore Beneficiation plant in the form of block diagrams.

Figure 3 shows a model flow sheet for an Iron Ore Beneficiation Plant in the form of standard drawings