The Kelsey Centrifugal jig was developed in Australia and was used in operation since 1990 in several mining companies such as BHP Billiton, CRA/Rio Tinto, Anglo Maerican, Dupont, RGC Minerals, RGC Tin, Lonrho Platinum and others. This unique mineral separation unit and recovery system is patented in several countries. This equipment has been used to recover tin and iron, and its experience on gold recovery is not well known. The model J1800 is purpose equipment for the iron ore industry, capable of treating 52-58 t/h of minus 300 µm tailings. The single pass produce product grades range from 66 to 68% Fe grade from a feed as low as 14% Fe.
The Kelsey Centrifugal jig has been installed in several in Tin operation to recover fine liberated tin. The equipment has been used in several tin operations and the results include hard rock tin feed material grading 14-16%. Tin was upgraded to 64% in a single pass at 73-75% recovery. The process feed had a K50 of 38 µm. soft rock tin with feed material taken from a hydro classifier at 0.16% of tin was upgraded to near 6% in a single pass and the estimated recovery was more than 90%.
The unit J1300 is only viable equipment in large volume production, separating zircon from kyanite in the mineral sands industry. Recoveries of 82-85% of coarse and fine grained zircon from high kyanite tailing streams can be achieved with 92-95% rejection of kyanite. The Kelsey jigs are also used in the mineral sand industry for the production of bulk concentrates of heavy minerals. Recoveries of up to 90% of heavy minerals from ultra fine grained minerals sands such 53 µm K80 can be obtained at a concentrate grade of 85-88% heavy minerals. The Kelsey jig has been used to recover chromite, tantalum and alluvial gold. It has been reported gold recoveries of more than 90% for gold particles as fine as five micron at a 100x upgrade ratio.
Kelsey centrifugal jig Schematic view of the Kelsey centrifugal jig