Nice set up there. Any other details?
forgot the vevor concrete vibrator that jiggles everything out of the vibrator. Gotta get the hopper opening just right for the ore to get the ore to go through without pouring out. Distance between conveyor and hopper is critical too. Wet ore doesn't work, maybe if there was a good sweeper on the conveyor. Size of the ore is 1/2" minus after it comes out of the goldfield orbital crusher. Ore needs to be a consistent size for the vibrating hopper conveyor method to work. Conveyor has different speed settings but even the slowest almost isn't slow enough. Water is dumped in the pipe right below the conveyor drop which occasionally splashes up to the conveyor and causes the ore to gunk up then pile over the edges. The goal is always to be able to dump the bucket and walk away. Really close just an occassional mishap. I usually work outside while it's running on a different project. Almost have a flotation tank system finished. The ore I run has 1-2 lbs of sulphides per 50 lb bucket. Not really suited to a gravity circuit so I'm hoping to add the flotation after the table. Probably send the #2 and #3 through the flotation circuit. I don't think the rp4 can handle much more of the type of ore i'm running than 150lbs an hour, maybe someone else is running more? Maybe if it was quartz gaunge and gold. Seems the riffles get covered and the sulphides could float right over the top towards the #2 and #3. One bucket really heavy with sulphides I ran the #2 five more times and each time got more sulphides out. Last time was down to a teaspoon and I called it good. Any rate I get a kick out of trying to make a better mousetrap.
Part of the enjoyment is coming up with different mousetrap settings. With sulphides there is likely to be some very fine values to fine tune set up to catch.
The way I am understanding your posts is that your hammermill product reports directly to your shaker table without any screen classification. Maybe part of your problem is because of size disparities within your feed material.
Very possible and it does need to be addressed. The only classification is the screen within the hammermill and the screen on the rp4. So one option is make a screening system that sends the oversize back through the hammermill or possibly through the ball mill next to it. Trouble with the ball mill is the system is in the city limits and ball mills don't make good neighbors. Which would mean the ball mill soundproofing project would begin. The other option and current system is to grab the bucket of #2s and #3s rerun it and see if a finer grind liberates significant amount of values. So far my tests show the current system catches 90% of free gold quartz type ore. Sulphide ore doesn't work as well and I don't have hard numbers on the recovery just estimates based on 400 lbs run. Recovery is about 60-70% with those. That's why the flotation experiment. Maybe I can get an acceptable recovery from the hammermill and a flotation plant. Sulphide ore recovery is usually better with a flotation system based on everything I've read. It's a GRAND experiment in which I have no schooling no working knowledge but have a passion for.
