Australian Fortescue to use six modern allflux fluidised bed separators in iron ore production.

This year, west-Australian mining company Fortescue Metals is set to start iron ore production in the Pilbara region using Allmineral technology.

Fortescue trusts Allmineral’s future-proof technology for efficient sorting and classification of the iron ore: six modern allflux fluidised bed separators will start operation this spring in Cloud Break in northwest Australia. Each has the capacity to clean, sort and classify 170t of iron ore per hour with particles less than 2mm.

The allflux process is based on the fluidised bed principle. An upward stream is generated in the coarse sand chamber that causes fine and light particles to rise, while large, heavy particles sink and are removed as ready-made concentrate. In the peripheral fine-sand chamber a pre-concentrate is generated that is cleaned on spirals. The allflux overflow contains only the finest slurry and coarser light particles.

allflux fluidised bed separators are built for through-put performances from 20m³/h. to 2,000m³/h. The upper grain sizes are between 2mm and 4mm. The current and control features allow the generation of three finely-separated, classified products by a single machine unit.

Fortescue Materials opted for Allmineral’s technology because of the years of positive experiences with allflux fluidised bed separators in the South African iron ore industry and convincing results of pilot runs. Allmineral’s technology completely fulfils the company’s process-related demands and offers considerable advantages relating to investment and operating costs.

Allmineral is one of the world’s leading producers of jigging machines and fluidised bed separators; plants conceived in Duisburg can be found in Europe, India, Australia, South America, the USA and South Africa. The company has so far supplied 325 alljigs and 70 allflux for the wet separation of primary and secondary raw materials; they are used for the efficient sorting of coal, ore, slag, gravel, sand, and various recycling materials.