Diamond Mining Process
Diamond mining process—also referred to as diamond wash plants, diamond processing plants, or diamond recovery plants—is a specialized facility designed to extract and process alluvial diamonds from rivers, beaches, and diamond-rich deposits. Diamond mining and processing mainly rely on specialized, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly technologies such as crushing, washing, and separation. These technologies are particularly suitable for extracting diamonds from kimberlite or alluvial deposits.
Diamond Processing Solutions
Diamonds typically exist in alluvial form and may be mixed with rock ore. A diamond processing plant is a mining industry facility used to separate diamonds from surrounding gravel or ore. Diamond processing solutions are usually achieved through crushing, washing, screening, dense media separation, jig separation, magnetic separation, and other methods.
Diamond Separation Process
Crushing: After collecting diamond-bearing ore, it is transported to a primary crusher. The primary crusher reduces the ore size into smaller, more manageable pieces.
Scrubbing and Screening: Scrubbing and sieving the raw material removes clay, mud, and other contaminants that may adhere to diamonds. This step also helps break down the material and release embedded diamonds.
Separation Process:
The specific choice of process depends on raw ore characteristics, expected separation results, and economic considerations. In practical applications, these two processes can also be combined to improve sorting efficiency and effectiveness.
A jig separator uses water flow and vibration. Diamonds and heavier impurities settle to the bottom or heavier layers, while lighter impurities float on the water surface.
Dense Media Separation (DMS) uses a suspension medium (e.g., heavy liquid or magnetic liquid) for sorting. Raw ore is soaked in the suspension medium; diamonds and heavier impurities settle to the bottom, while lighter impurities float on the suspension surface.
Diamond Recovery: The heavy fraction containing diamonds undergoes further processing to recover the diamonds. Methods include X-ray sorting, grease tables, and hand sorting—selected based on diamond size and quality.
Final Grading: Recovered diamonds are sorted by size, shape, color, and clarity. They may undergo additional grading and evaluation to determine their value and potential use in the diamond market.
Sortek Group provides professional mineral processing equipment configuration and process design for each type of diamond mine. Contact our diamond processing experts now for technical consultation and quotations!
Diamond Processing Plant
1. Alluvial Diamond Wash Plant
This alluvial diamond wash plant can also be used for washing and separating kimberlite and other alluvial minerals.
Alluvial Diamond Wash Plant Process
Feeding Stage: First, a vibrating feeder with sieve bars is used to remove large-sized stones.
Washing Stage: Smaller particles enter a trommel scrubber to clean the diamond ore. The ore washing machine is equipped with two layers of screens (2mm and 25mm), mainly separating 2–25mm particles.
Screening Stage: The 2–25mm material may still contain particles of other sizes. Therefore, a high-frequency vibrating screen is used to re-separate the 2–25mm material, removing particles smaller than 2mm and larger than 25mm.
Note: If the material is not highly viscous, the trommel scrubber can be replaced with a trommel screen. If concentrate concentration is required, jig separators can be added later. The number of machines is for reference only and depends on your production capacity. It is also possible to design a one-stop small diamond washing plant (jig concentrator + trommel screen/rotary scrubber).
→→Contact us to customize a suitable alluvial diamond wash plant solution tailored to your specific needs.
2. Rock Diamond Processing Plant
Feeding: An excavator or loader delivers raw ore into a hopper. A vibrating feeder with a grizzly screen then feeds the ore evenly into the No. 1 jaw crusher. Waste rock larger than 70mm is directly discharged to the waste rock pile via a belt conveyor.
Crushing and Screening: The discharge from the No. 1 jaw crusher is transported via a belt conveyor to a high-frequency vibrating screen. The screened ore is separated into three fractions: 0–2mm (sent to the slurry pool), 2–25mm (sent to the next stage), and particles larger than 25mm (sent to the No. 2 jaw crusher for further crushing, then returned to the vibrating screen).
Diamond Recovery: The 2–25mm material screened by the vibrating screen passes through a transfer hopper and enters a jig concentrator, where diamonds are recovered via gravity separation.
This complete diamond processing equipment set features a streamlined configuration, strong adaptability, and low operating costs.
→→Contact Sortek Group to design small-to-large rock diamond processing solutions based on ore characteristics!
3. Alluvial & Rock Diamond Mining Process
Feeding & Primary Crushing: Grid hopper, vibrating feeder, jaw crusher
Washing and Classification: Rotary scrubber + vibrating screen
Crushing and Secondary Screening: Cone crusher, vibrating screen
Dewatering and Sorting: Dewatering screen, jig
Sortek Group's complete diamond processing plant uses multi-stage crushing and screening to ensure uniform particle size and maximize efficiency. Production capacity is flexible and customizable to your needs (e.g., 10tph, 50tph, 100tph).
