Celestite Gravity Separation (2D)

Jig Pulsation

Pulse rate 27

Stroke amplitude 21

Feed

Feed rate 48

Grain size 5.0 mm

Bed settling — dense celestite sinks toward the sieve.

Live Readout

SrSO4 recovery

Concentrate purity

Grains in bed

Stroke phase

0.0

How it works

Celestite (SrSO₂) has a specific gravity around 3.95, roughly 45% denser than the calcite/quartz gangue (~2.7) it is mined with. A jig separates the two by pulsing water up and down through a perforated sieve: the rising stroke lifts the whole bed and loosens it (dilation), the falling stroke lets grains resettle under gravity.

Each grain obeys Stokes drag: its velocity relaxes toward the pulsing water's velocity with a time constant τ ∝ ρ₀r², while a constant buoyant bias ∝ (1−ρ_fluid/ρ_grain) pulls it downward between strokes. Because τ grows with density and grain size, small light gangue grains track the pulsation almost instantly and stay teetered near the top, while large dense celestite grains lag behind the water and work their way down to the sieve stroke after stroke — exactly the stratification a real jig plant exploits.

Raise the pulse rate or stroke amplitude to dilate the bed harder (faster but noisier separation); raise the feed rate to see purity fall as the bed becomes crowded.

Celestite SrSO4 (dense) Calcite/quartz gangue (light)