Coal beneficiation of Candiota mine by dry jigging

The objective of this work is to test dry jigging, operated with air, to eliminate pyrite nodules and liberated clays from Candiota coal. Candiota mine is the biggest Brazilian Coal deposit, which is beneficiated for fueling a thermoelectric plant. This coal presents a high degree of liberated pyrite in a wide range of densities. Hence, gravity separation of pyrite appears apparently obvious. However, any wet treatment results difficult due to the high porosity of the material as a consequence of its low rank. For that reason, dry jigging was proved instead with encouraging results. Samples from the upper layer of the seam, which had around 1.8% sulfur and about 51% ash, appeared after jigging with about 0.7% sulfur and near 47% ash. After these results, pilot jigs are planned to install at the plant.