Industrial Diamond Recovery from Slurry 1

[PMPengineer]

We do alot of grinding with industrial diamond coated wheels. What are my options to recovering the spent diamond? We use induatrial diamond in other areas of the company to Lap flat surfaces, I would also like to recover and reuse the diamond from these areas also. What is the most common process used to revover the diamond from the slurry? Chemical?, magnetics?, fusion? How is this done and where can I learn more? If possible I would like to start recovering the lost diamond.

 

[ornerynorsk]

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=d...=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[miningman]

I'm not sure that recovered small size diamonds would be worth the capital and operating expenses. However you might want to research the techniques used by the three diamond mines in the NWT Canada. Howver you will run into a lot of "security issues". Cameras are banned in these plants for a number of reasons.

It is common knowledge the in South africa they used grease tables to capture diamonds. Apparently diamond has an affinity for grease, so it might be cost effective to run your slurry over a home made grease table and see what you can recover

 

[PMPengineer]

Many thanks for the information and advice from ornerynorsk and miningman. I found on the website a list of companies the provide a reclaim service but they're all out of state. Does anyone sell the equipment requires so I can do this in-house?

I dont quite understand the grease recovery method, is this posible for micron size diamond? Or even practical for high production volume grinding operations?


Any help with understanding the revovery process and the equipment needed would be a appreciated.

 

[tomwalz]

What are you going to do with the recovered diamonds?

They are odd sizes as well as broken and worn.

We can't find anyone interested in buying them.



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[ornerynorsk]

PMPengineer, as Miningman mentioned, grease belts (and vibrating tables) are used for extracting diamond from mine rough because of their natural affinity to grease. I believe petrolatum is commonly used, but you'd have to verify that. You could set up a lab-sized prototype reclaimer to test the worth of your extraction proposal.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[PMPengineer]

ornerynorsk, Do you have any suggestions on how to setup the lab test with a grease belt and vibratory table?

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Google or watch "Gold Rush" on TV

 

[btrueblood]

Density of diamond makes it sorta tough to "pan" or sluice it out of other mineral species.

"Do you have any suggestions on how to setup the lab test with a grease belt and vibratory table? "

Attach a motor to a table, with an eccentric weight on the motor shaft. Slather grease on the table. Pour/dribble your slurry mix onto the table while it's vibrating. Finish with a clean water rinse. Scrape the grease (hopefully now loaded with large gemstones) into a bucket. Add solvent (gasoline would work). Pour the solvent/grease/diamond mix into a filter (size of filter will determine how big the diamonds you will capture). Dry filter, shake diamonds out.

Better suggestions would be to sneak into a diamond mine and look at how they do it, or find some patents that cover the methods and see what you can learn. Or hire a mining engineer...

 

[ornerynorsk]

Yes, what BT said, only in commercial ops the grease/diamond mixture is seperated via a boiler arrangement. For a small scale lab experiment, you might not even need to vibrate the table. The purpose of the vibrating is to flow the material being fed onto it so it doesn't simply pile up.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[miningman]

If youre going to follow MiketheEngineer's advice and watch Goldrush for ideas..... do the exact opposite of what they do... that bunch of clowns is a prime example of why most amateur miners go broke. And trueblood is correct,theres insufficuient difference in the density of diamonds and associated minerals to make any form of gravity separation likely to be successfull.

As Tomwalz suggested , do a bit of market research as to what your recovered product might be worth before you put a pile of $$$$$$ into R+D

 

[PMPengineer]

I appreciate all the input; we generate a lot of sludge from grinding with diamond wheels. How do most other companies reclaim the diamond? Is the most common option to landfill the sludge or give the sludge away to someone else to reclaim the diamond?

 

[btrueblood]

miningman,

Thanks, you made me laugh and confirmed my own (arguably less valuable) opinion. Every time they stop to clean the sluice on that show, they have the whole crew standing around for an hour or two. Apparently there is no reason for them to be greasing bearings, refueling equipment, cleaning intake filters, removing/grading the tailings heap, etc. etc.

PMPengineer, I would suggest that you try and determine the "market price" for your reclaimed industrial diamonds vs. virgin material, and then estimate how much you could generate (based on how much you go through). You might have to put out some blind feelers to locate buyers for your reclaimed product, or there might be some places currently selling the grit that could give you advice. That should give you a budget for reclamation, and guide you to answer your own question. It may be (as I've found in similar reclamation/recycling projects) that your recovered product is essentially worthless - nobody wants it at any price - and that too will guide your decision.

 

[tomwalz]

I can't find anyone to buy it.

Diamond wheel grit is very specific as to shape, grade, etc. Lots and lots of kinds of diamonds in the world.

We sell grinding sludge for the metal in it. However our sludge comes from grinding tungsten carbide.



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[diamondpowder]

PMP Engineering

Our company LANDS Superabrasives in New York,may be able to help you figure out a way to get some value out of used diamond material.

Thanks
David
888-335-7600

 

[miningman]

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/process.html