Patent ID: 8317033

Claim:
A method for concentrating by densimetry a particulate matter, comprising at least two constituents of different densities, in which a slurry of said particulate matter is subjected to jigging by centrifugation and to centripetal pulses in a centrifugation chamber having a length and a stationary and substantially cylindrical peripheral wall, and a dense fraction of the slurry and a light fraction of the slurry are drawn off from the centrifugation chamber through the peripheral wall of the chamber, wherein, in order to produce the centripetal pulses, a fluid is injected into the slurry through the peripheral wall of the chamber in a direction oblique or tangential to the peripheral wall such that a pulsing force is imparted to the slurry in the direction of centrifugation, the fluid being injected substantially continuously into the slurry.