Flexicone centrifugal concentrator

[CreviceSucker]

I would look at this from the reverse.....what mesh size are you classifying to? What kind of water are you running? What size gold are you trying to capture? What sort of TPH are you running?

The answer will be pretty straight forward.....knudson if your running recirc water and if you have plenty of clean water and your chasing smalls then a Nelson will do the best job.

Gday Goldtalk
I am waiting for a new lease approval for a tailings operation where ideally I would like to be pushing through 20 TPA
And screening it down to 4mm so there will about 10 TPA going through the Concentrator .
The water feed will mostly recirc for the main feed and if got a knelson I would looking at having the counter pressure fed via a bore.
While I am waiting and jumping through the hoops to get the lease granted I have got my hands on a rota sluice and a knudson which I could start with before upgrading to a knelson type concentrator
I believe the knudson operates at about 5 TPH
There is a 30 inch knelson in a auction in Kal at the moment but its to big for me
Really looking for a 12 or a 20 inch but They are hard to find.
Cheers Greg

I made some sedimentation catch tanks for a customer recently , do you have those coming already or have the design for them ?

Whats your recirc pumping rate ?

These are just on a footprint of 2400 x 1200 with 6 inch pipework and you have to manually tip them out every 2 - 3 weeks but for more money you would make dewatering stacks that change over with a diverter valve and when you need to empty each tank you rotate them on a shaft and tip them into a skip bin to be dumped on a tailings pile and dried out in the sun.

 

[CreviceSucker]

I would look at this from the reverse.....what mesh size are you classifying to? What kind of water are you running? What size gold are you trying to capture? What sort of TPH are you running?

The answer will be pretty straight forward.....knudson if your running recirc water and if you have plenty of clean water and your chasing smalls then a Nelson will do the best job.

Gday Goldtalk
I am waiting for a new lease approval for a tailings operation where ideally I would like to be pushing through 20 TPA
And screening it down to 4mm so there will about 10 TPA going through the Concentrator .
The water feed will mostly recirc for the main feed and if got a knelson I would looking at having the counter pressure fed via a bore.
While I am waiting and jumping through the hoops to get the lease granted I have got my hands on a rota sluice and a knudson which I could start with before upgrading to a knelson type concentrator
I believe the knudson operates at about 5 TPH
There is a 30 inch knelson in a auction in Kal at the moment but its to big for me
Really looking for a 12 or a 20 inch but They are hard to find.
Cheers Greg

you dont want that Knelson in WA mate , its only the steel shell , the spinner bowl and liner are missing , the lid and the hydraulics to raise the lid are missing , the shaft was there but was bent , they are asking $ 5000 starting bid , i would pay no more than $ 50 for that rubbish anyway.

:lol:

 

[Gregupnorth]

Not looking at sediment tanks at the moment but looking at settling ponds with sand bun walls between them.
There is a few unknowns until we start operating.
Also looking at new flocking agents that are none toxic if necessary. ?

I agree that WA knelson has seen better days.?

 

[Goldtalk Leonora]

I would look at this from the reverse.....what mesh size are you classifying to? What kind of water are you running? What size gold are you trying to capture? What sort of TPH are you running?

The answer will be pretty straight forward.....knudson if your running recirc water and if you have plenty of clean water and your chasing smalls then a Nelson will do the best job.

Gday Goldtalk
I am waiting for a new lease approval for a tailings operation where ideally I would like to be pushing through 20 TPA
And screening it down to 4mm so there will about 10 TPA going through the Concentrator .
The water feed will mostly recirc for the main feed and if got a knelson I would looking at having the counter pressure fed via a bore.
While I am waiting and jumping through the hoops to get the lease granted I have got my hands on a rota sluice and a knudson which I could start with before upgrading to a knelson type concentrator
I believe the knudson operates at about 5 TPH
There is a 30 inch knelson in a auction in Kal at the moment but its to big for me
Really looking for a 12 or a 20 inch but They are hard to find.
Cheers Greg

Knudson rated at 8TPH from memory.....I would run two and split the feed. A 12" Nelson would match your TPH load....guess what....I haveone that needs rebuilding but is all there!!

 

[Goldtalk Leonora]

I would look at this from the reverse.....what mesh size are you classifying to? What kind of water are you running? What size gold are you trying to capture? What sort of TPH are you running?

The answer will be pretty straight forward.....knudson if your running recirc water and if you have plenty of clean water and your chasing smalls then a Nelson will do the best job.

do you know who the bloke is in WA that is making the Knudson copies ?

Some people quote $ 35,000 for a genuine one

The bloke in WA that makes the knudson copies advertises them on the mining graveyard site under processing and then click Concentrators and jigs
l see them advertised for 9500 + gst ?

Yeah thanks Greg i saw their website and spoke to staff last week , Mining Graveyard couldnt tell me if the Knudson copies have air fluid bed or not so i was hoping to talk to the horse rather than the horse trader.

Reality is if the WA guy is not using fluid / hydraulic bed then he is making "Nelson Concentrators"

Knudsons dont use/have a pressurized fluid bed...it's simply the bowl with one or two 'scrapers" that run next to the edge of the bowl to keep things fluid. Nelsons and Falcons inject water. An origional Knudson from Mineral Technologies in QLD will set you back $18k. There are two aftermarket Knudon bowl builders...one in Perth and one in Kalgoorlie....both are actually well made. The key is to look at the 'wobble' at the top edge of the bowl. The 'truer' it runs the better the recovery. Yes, you need to clean them out several times a day.....who cares? if your catching gold then I would clean them out every hour!! $9500 for a knudson copy is a fair price....and they are well made. The other thing about knudsons Vs nelsons is that the knudsons RPM is around 105...so nice and slow. Nelsons are over 1000rpm so you really need to be onto your maintenance with regards to bearings etc. Knudsons are a much better and simpler 'bush' unit. The Kalgoorlie knudsons also run a variable speed drive which is important depending on the dirt your running.

 

[Goldtalk Leonora]

Not looking at sediment tanks at the moment but looking at settling ponds with sand bun walls between them.
There is a few unknowns until we start operating.
Also looking at new flocking agents that are none toxic if necessary. ?

I agree that WA knelson has seen better days.?

Have you had some basic Metworks done?

 

[CreviceSucker]

I would look at this from the reverse.....what mesh size are you classifying to? What kind of water are you running? What size gold are you trying to capture? What sort of TPH are you running?

The answer will be pretty straight forward.....knudson if your running recirc water and if you have plenty of clean water and your chasing smalls then a Nelson will do the best job.

do you know who the bloke is in WA that is making the Knudson copies ?

Some people quote $ 35,000 for a genuine one

The bloke in WA that makes the knudson copies advertises them on the mining graveyard site under processing and then click Concentrators and jigs
l see them advertised for 9500 + gst ?

Yeah thanks Greg i saw their website and spoke to staff last week , Mining Graveyard couldnt tell me if the Knudson copies have air fluid bed or not so i was hoping to talk to the horse rather than the horse trader.

Reality is if the WA guy is not using fluid / hydraulic bed then he is making "Nelson Concentrators"

Knudsons dont use/have a pressurized fluid bed...it's simply the bowl with one or two 'scrapers" that run next to the edge of the bowl to keep things fluid. Nelsons and Falcons inject water. An origional Knudson from Mineral Technologies in QLD will set you back $18k. There are two aftermarket Knudon bowl builders...one in Perth and one in Kalgoorlie....both are actually well made. The key is to look at the 'wobble' at the top edge of the bowl. The 'truer' it runs the better the recovery. Yes, you need to clean them out several times a day.....who cares? if your catching gold then I would clean them out every hour!! $9500 for a knudson copy is a fair price....and they are well made. The other thing about knudsons Vs nelsons is that the knudsons RPM is around 105...so nice and slow. Nelsons are over 1000rpm so you really need to be onto your maintenance with regards to bearings etc. Knudsons are a much better and simpler 'bush' unit. The Kalgoorlie knudsons also run a variable speed drive which is important depending on the dirt your running.

Looks like we are both confusing our Knelsons Knudsons and Nelsons.

It is the Knelson bowls that use fluid bed and higher RPM for greater G force differentials to improve stratification. ( 120 RPM on a 24" bowl is about 5 G )

The Knelsons get much higher tonnage throughput for the same size bowl.

The Knudsons only use the paddles with no fluid bed injection.

pardon my confusement.

https://www.flsmidth.com/en-gb/prod.../knelson-semi-continuous-gravity-concentrator

https://www.savonaequipment.com/en/equipment/gold-concentrators-e41437?s=p&p=2

 

[Mike678]

I think the F.L. Smith website used to have more info. on the Knelson concentrators . The smallest was 3 inch for lab use . If you are interested send me an e-mail and I will scan and send the info .

 

[Gregupnorth]

Not looking at sediment tanks at the moment but looking at settling ponds with sand bun walls between them.
There is a few unknowns until we start operating.
Also looking at new flocking agents that are none toxic if necessary. ?

I agree that WA knelson has seen better days.?

Have you had some basic Metworks done?

Gday Goldtalk
Not sure what you are meaning by metworks
I have already a alluvial wash plant consisting on a hopper and shaker deck which would need to be converted to a twin deck with a finer screen to run the Concentrator with it.

 

[Mike678]

The 3 inch Knelson will take up to 3 m.m. material .

Non toxic flocking agents have been around for ages , they are used in water treatment plants . But of course they are more expensive ...

 

[Goldtalk Leonora]

Not looking at sediment tanks at the moment but looking at settling ponds with sand bun walls between them.
There is a few unknowns until we start operating.
Also looking at new flocking agents that are none toxic if necessary. ?

I agree that WA knelson has seen better days.?

Have you had some basic Metworks done?

Gday Goldtalk
Not sure what you are meaning by metworks
I have already a alluvial wash plant consisting on a hopper and shaker deck which would need to be converted to a twin deck with a finer screen to run the Concentrator with it.

Metallurgical works (not sure if my spelling is right?).... we run metworks particularly when dealing with ore so we can understand the best recovery methods and the grinding fractions required to release the gold to an economic barrier. Even with alluvials, we need to understand what it is we are chasing and that will determine how we catch it. If it's all coarse and no fines then that will be one style of plant....if there is no 'smalls' then you dont even need a concentrator....the prob with alluvial's is that they vary...but you can get an idea of the average your trying to capture and build your plant to suit. I see it regularly here in the West with dryblowers....using old units from the 80's that are economic on 2-3GPT dirt we had back then but fail miserably on the grades we run today. Setting up a plant is the easy part....it's the sampling and homework that will make or break a project in my opinion.Either way...it beats working for a living!!

 

[Gregupnorth]

Hi Goldtalk
You are 100% correct in saying you need to sample and do your homework.
Before applying for the lease l held the EPM over the area and taken many samples in a grid.
Then put them over a shaker table and with the help of a analytical laboratory determined the grade.
It is very fine but the gold is there.
Other miners and geo,s strongly recommend the knelson and a 12 would be ideal so I would be keen to have a chat about the one you have.
Anyway I appreciate your input and the knowledge you Crevice Sucker and Mike have

Cheers Greg

 

[Mike678]

I worked as a fitter for Metcon Labs. - Ammtec - ALS in Sydney .

We had a 3inch Knelson and a Falcon 4 inch ? The Falcon was not used much . The Knelson was used on samples so that the company could decide to buy larger ones for the plant .

Before that I worked for Warman R&D we were doing a lot of fire assay for gold .

If you send your cons. down a sluice or blue bowl you only have a g. force of one. If you put them in a spinning bowl , you have a lot more g. force. Think about it which is better ???
.

 

[Goldtalk Leonora]

Hi Goldtalk
You are 100% correct in saying you need to sample and do your homework.
Before applying for the lease l held the EPM over the area and taken many samples in a grid.
Then put them over a shaker table and with the help of a analytical laboratory determined the grade.
It is very fine but the gold is there.
Other miners and geo,s strongly recommend the knelson and a 12 would be ideal so I would be keen to have a chat about the one you have.
Anyway I appreciate your input and the knowledge you Crevice Sucker and Mike have

Cheers Greg

Fines are a pain in the arse.....smaller it is...harder it is....sounds like good classification will be an important factor? The good side of that is if you only need to run a small fraction through your concentrator then your actual through put increases through the roof. If it's fine gold your chasing then a concentrator will prob be the go.

I have a ridgy didge 12" Nelson...it needs to be rebuilt...nothing too hard as far as I can see....I intend doing it myself but time is my enemy! Bowl looks ok...it needs to be stripped down...sand blasted.....metal work....new motor/electrics...new bearings etc...prob an ounce of parts and labour. I would sell it for 5k firm....then you would have freight from WA....if I rebuild it its 10-15k easy.
Have you asked around your area to see if anyone will hire one to you? A fella over here has hired out Knudsons for a couple of hundred a week...that could be a good way to run you bulk samples???

 

[Gregupnorth]

Hi Goldtalk
The samplings phase is done. Have all the approvals But now just trying to get passed native title and pastoral lease compensations.
I will be keen to talk to you about the knelson.. I will send you a PM ?

 

[Goldtalk Leonora]

Hi Goldtalk
The samplings phase is done. Have all the approvals But now just trying to get passed native title and pastoral lease compensations.
I will be keen to talk to you about the knelson.. I will send you a PM ?

Just send me an email Greg...google Goldtalk Leonora......and I can send you some pics etc...dont you just love it when it's nothing but dollars going out the door!

Then....if you do get going...people only see the clean ups!!

 

[Nightjar]

Does anyone know of any company using an Electrostatic Gold Separator in their process plant.
Worked a number of years with a Mineral Sands processing plant where Rutile & Zircon was extracted with these machines.
Did a google and there has been a patent taken out for a gold separator.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3013662A/en

 

[CreviceSucker]

Does anyone know of any company using an Electrostatic Gold Separator in their process plant.
Worked a number of years with a Mineral Sands processing plant where Rutile & Zircon was extracted with these machines.
Did a google and there has been a patent taken out for a gold separator.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3013662A/en

I didnt see electrostatics used with Gold but if anyone does Mineral Technologies would be the first ones to ask.

Your mineral sands job wasnt at Tomago NSW by any chance ?

 

[Nightjar]

CS, There is a mention:
3,013,662 ELECTRGSTATIC SEPARATGR Charies A. Phillips, Delia, Alberta, Canada Filed June 12, 1959, Ser. No. 81?,862 Gaines priority, application Canada Apr. 16, 1959 6 Claims. (Cl. 209-429) This invention relates to a method and a device for separating the components of a mixture of solid materials. In particular, the invention relates to an electrostatic method device for separating finely divided gold from the sand and gravel of placer deposits.

Did visit the Mineral Sands companies along the NSW coast. My time was Maintenance Supervisor with Jennings Mining (early 70's) at the process plant in Geraldton, the mine was at Eneabba.

 

[Mike678]

Warman used to make them under license from Carpco ? USA. They were mainly lab sized units . There is a lab in Gosford NSW that might have one for test purposes . I can find more details if you want .

I am still in contact with my old boss , he knows all about those machines .