ABSTRACT
Dressing of raw minerals involves, typically, ore dressing and recovery of valuable components. This chapter considers the feasibility of intense ultrasound in basic dressing and hydrometallurgical processes. Ultrasound promotes the surface oxidation of minerals that are commonly difficult to oxidize. Drying of mineral concentrates is a final stage of their dehydration if coagulation and filtration cannot provide a necessary moisture content of ore concentrates. Ultrasonic disintegration of minerals is expedient in the case of expensive products when it is necessary to obtain a small amount of powdered material. For instance, although the hardness of pyrite is greater than that of sphalerite and chalcopyrite, ultrasound completely breaks down the adsorbed layers of flotation reagents on the pyrite surface, but fails to remove them from sphalerite and chalcopyrite. At concentration plants, ultrasonic defrothing is most commonly accomplished by aerodynamic and pulsation-rotary hydrodynamic transducers.
