UNIVERSITY OF MINES AND TECHNOLOGY, TARKWA

FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS, NOV. / DEC. 2018

Name: __________________________________________ Index Number: _______________

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SECTION A
(Answer ALL)
1. Mining is the selective recovery of minerals and materials from the earth crust.
TRUE/FALSE
2. Comminution begins after the ore has been mined and hauled to the processing plant.
TRUE/FALSE
3. Mineral processing is a series of processes which involve mechanical separation of the
grain of ore mineral from the gangue material. TRUE/FALSE
4. Screening, classification and dewatering are intermediate processes of mineral processing
technology. TRUE/FALSE
5. Comminution is purposely done to liberate the mineral of interest from their interlocked
state. TRUE/FALSE
6. In mineral processing, we conduct comminution to produce end products for subsequent
process. TRUE/FALSE
7. Comminution circuit always incorporates merits which seek to improve upon the
efficiency usage of energy. TRUE/FALSE
8. Screening or classification is not operation used to remove fine materials from entering
the next stage and to minimise over reduction. TRUE/FALSE
9. Primary crushers are not heavy duty machines designed robustly to fragment ROM ore
from about 1.5m to about 2.5mm. TRUE/FALSE
10. Crushing is strictly carried out in open circuit. TRUE/FALSE

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11. The Blake type Jaw crusher has great force and prone to choking because of its large
swing. TRUE/FALSE
12. The double toggle Jaw crusher consists of the Pitman as one of its components.
TRUE/FALSE
13. In the gyratory crusher, crushing is effected as the ore compressed between the head and
the shell of the machine. TRUE/FALSE
14. The main purpose of secondary crusher is to reduce the ore from a size of about 140 mm
to a suitable feed size of about 5-20 mm for a grinding mill. TRUE/FALSE
15. Oversize materials are taken care of by all types of crushers no matter the size of the ore.
TRUE/FALSE
16. One of the essential purposes of blending during crushing is to control the hardness of the
ore. TRUE/FALSE
17. Grinding is the final stage of comminution through which size reduction is effected by
the combination of impact and abrasion in suspension with water. TRUE/FALSE
18. In mineral processing, grinding is conducted to effect enough liberation of the bulk
valuable mineral from the gangue and/or from each other prior to concentration.
TRUE/FALSE
19. A tumbling mill is a vertical cylindrical shell, provided with renewable wearing liners
and a charge of grinding media. TRUE/FALSE20. The medium in the Mill is a charge
of loose unconnected crushing bodies, which may be steel rods, balls, hard rocks or the
ore itself. TRUE/FALSE
21. One of the reasons of grinding is to produce an end product that satisfies certain market
requirement especially in non-metallic ore beneficiation. TRUE/FALSE22. Low
Speed of a mill causes the charge to cascade more and comminution is mainly by impact,
and this results in fines with increased slimes and liner wear. TRUE/FALSE
23. Fast Speed of a mill causes the charge to cataract more and comminution is mainly by
abrasion giving courser product at a reduced liner wear. True/False
24. When a tumbling mill speeds beyond its critical Speed, the charge centrifuges and there
is no meaningful comminution. TRUE/FALSE
25. During mineral processing, the mill normally operates within 50-90% of the critical
speed. TRUE/FALSE

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26. Wet grinding is used in mineral processing because of the lower power consumption per
tonnage of ore ground. TRUE/FALSE
27. Wet grinding enables simple handling and transport of the product using equipment like
pump, pipe and launders. TRUE/FALSE

28. Dry grinding is employed in mineral processing in order to reduce wear rate of liners and
grinding media, increase fines and for materials that undergo physical and chemical
change with water. TRUE/FALSE
29. Mechanism of Particle Breakage depends on the presence of cracks or flaws in the matrix
act as points of stress concentration in the rock. TRUE/FALSE
30. When brittle materials are stressed they release stored energy by crack propagation.
TRUE/FALSE
31. Size reduction is said to be the most efficient operation in mineral processing with regard
to energy consumption. TRUE/FALSE
32. The theory of comminution assumes all materials to be brittle such that energy is not
consumed for mere deformation. TRUE/FALSE
33. Rettinger’s theory, Kick's Law, and Bond's Law are some of the comminution theories
used to address the dependence of product particle size on energy input. TRUE/FALSE
34. Rettinger’s theory states that the energy consumed in breaking a particle is inversely
proportional to the new area of surface produced. TRUE/FALSE
35. Kick's Law states that the work required in breaking a material is inversely proportional
to the reduction in volume of the particles concerned. TRUE/FALSE
36. Bond's Law states that the work input in a material is proportional to the new crack
length produced in the particle breakage and this is equivalent to the difference in works
represented by the product and the feed. TRUE/FALSE
37. Rettinger's theory applies in fine grinding range (1-1000m). TRUE/FALSE
38. Kick's law is fairly accurate for crushing above 1cm. TRUE/FALSE
39. The purpose of screening is to retain oversize material in a given section or circuit in
order to prevent it from being fed into a machine not specified to deal with it.
TRUE/FALSE
40. Screening is affected by the shape of particle relative to the shape of screen aperture.

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 TRUE/FALSE
41. A Trommel screen is a slightly inclined, rotating cylindrical screen, which can be used
wet or dry. TRUE/FALSE
42. Trommels can handle material from 55 mm down to 6 mm, and even smaller sizes can be
handled under wet screening conditions. TRUE/FALSE
43. Shaking screens have a reciprocating movement mechanically induced in the horizontal
direction and are mounted either horizontally or with a gentle slope and they operate in
the range of 60-800 strokes per minute. TRUE/FALSE
44. Reciprocating screens employ a horizontal gyratory motion to the feed end of a
rectangular screen by means of an unbalanced rotating shaft, rotating at about 1000 rev
min. TRUE/FALSE
45. The gyratory screen imparts gyratory motion throughout the whole screen cloth and is
widely used for fine-screening applications down to 40 µm. TRUE/FALSE
46. Performance of a Screen is the ability of a screen to separate a material such that the
oversize will remain on the screen whiles the undersize passes through the screen.
TRUE/FALSE
47. Particle Size Analysis is the process used to obtain quantitative data about the size and
size distribution of particles in the material. TRUE/FALSE
48. Classification is a process of sorting a mixture of mineral into two or more products
based on the velocities with which the mineral grains fall through a fluid medium.
TRUE/FALSE
49. Free settling regime involves sinking of particle through suspension medium around 45%
solids such that particle crowding is negligible and particles fall at their own settling
velocities. TRUE/FALSE
50. Hindered settling takes place when the particle falls through a suspension medium of
relatively low density such that settling is affected by particle crowding leading to a
decrease in falling rate and sharpness of settling. TRUE/FALSE
51. The cyclone is used for continuous classification of particles by utilizing centrifugal force
to increase the rate of settling. TRUE/FALSE
52. The cyclone consists of an upper cylindrical part fixed with a tangential feed opening and
an axially mounted overflow pipe at the top via a vortex finder, which extends across the

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 feed inlet to avoid short-circuiting and a lower conical section with an underflow
discharge area called the apex. TRUE/FALSE
53. The slurry is introduced into the cyclone at a low pressure through the tangential feed
opening to generate a vortex motion in the cyclone with a low-pressure zone along the
vertical axis. TRUE/FALSE
54. A Cyclone requires less floor space, consumes less power and have a sharper separation
ability. TRUE/FALSE
55. Concentration or mineral upgrading is the separation of the mineral of interest from the
unwanted minerals basically by the use of physical means. TRUE/FALSE
56. Ore Sorting has been the oldest (indigenous) method used in separating mineral particles
from the gangue material based on distinct physical properties. TRUE/FALSE
57. Gravity concentration is the separation of minerals according to the difference in their
specific gravities and their response to gravity and other fluid resistant forces.
TRUE/FALSE
58. Sluices, Jigs, Shaking tables and Centrifugal pans are types of gravity concentrators.
TRUE/FALSE
59. Generally gravity separation is relatively easier for G>± 2.5 and is not commercially
feasible for G <±1.25 where G is the gravity concentration criterion. TRUE/FALSE
60. Dewatering is used to decrease the quantity of water of a slurry after mineral processing
so that the water can be recycled. TRUE/FALSE

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 Section B (Answer ALL Questions)

Question 1
a. In a tabular form, write the differences between single and double toggle Blake Jaw
crushers.
b. State two types of classifiers which are employed in mineral processing.
c. There are two types of forces which are utilized in cyclones. Name these forces and list
particle size ranges within which they are applicable.
d. Why will you as the Process Engineer of a gold mine, select a hydrocyclone as a better
classifier in closed circuit grinding compared to any other classifier?
e. Cyclones work efficiently when certain operational factors are strictly observed. What are
these factors?

Question 2
a. List the advantages of dry and wet grinding.
b. Draw a well labelled diagram of the motion a charge in a tumbling mill.
c. Explain the effects of low and fast rotation motion speeds on particles in a tumbling mill.
d. Draw and label opened and closed circuits in grinding of ores?
e. What are some of the causes of circulating loads in milling circuits of a mineral
processing plant?

J. GORDON

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