Patent ID: 7429331

Claim:
A separate preseparation conditioning apparatus for inducing magnetism in a flowstream of an at least partially magnetizable particulate feed material suspended in a liquid, in use to precondition the flowstream for a subsequent separation process in a separate stage; said at least partially magnetizable particulate feed material including a non-magnetizable particulate feed material and a magnetizable particulate feed material; said magnetizable particulate feed material including a relative strongly magnetizable portion and a relatively weakly magnetizable portion; the apparatus including: a treatment chamber having an inlet and an outlet through which the flowstream respectively enters and exits the chamber and wherein the flow stream is delivered to the subsequent separate separation process upon exiting the treatment chamber; and a magnetic source able to be selectively activated with respect to the treatment chamber, such that, when activated, the magnetic source magnetizes said strongly magnetizable portion and said relatively weakly magnetizable portion in at least some of the particulate feed material in the chamber thereby to increase selectivity of separation in said subsequent separate separation process of said more weakly magnetizable portion of said at least partially magnetizable particulate feed material, said magnetic source, when deactivated returns substantially all of the magnetized particulate feed material to said flow stream for treatment in said subsequent separate separation stage.