Variables
Description
What is this formula?
Concentration Ratio measures how much the feed mass has been reduced during a concentration process.
It represents the ratio between the mass of ore entering the process and the mass of concentrate produced.
A higher concentration ratio generally indicates a greater degree of upgrading of the valuable mineral.
When to use it
Use this formula when evaluating mineral beneficiation processes such as flotation, gravity concentration, magnetic separation, or dense-media separation.
It is commonly used together with recovery and enrichment ratio to assess plant performance.
Example
A concentrator processes:
Feed mass = 5000 t
Concentrate mass = 250 t
Formula:
CR=F/C
Substitution:
CR=5000/250
CR=20
Result:
Twenty tonnes of feed are required to produce one tonne of concentrate.
Applications
- Mineral processing plants
- Flotation performance evaluation
- Gravity concentration circuits
- Magnetic separation systems
- Metallurgical accounting
- Process optimization
Note
Concentration Ratio is an operational performance indicator and not a fundamental physical law. A high concentration ratio does not necessarily imply high recovery, since valuable metal may be lost during processing. For this reason it should be evaluated together with metallurgical recovery and concentrate grade.