BULK SAMPLING CIRCUIT

The production lot has been completely crushed and ground to the appropriate mesh size (minus screened off scales) and has become more homogeneous throughout the process. The material and all of the dust collected from the crushing and grinding circuit is loaded into a holding bin located above the bulk sampling circuit. The material is dropped at a constant rate into a cutter box that splits the production lot into four equal portions. The four portions are then dropped at a constant rate into a primary revolving drum that has equally spaced discharge slots cut into its periphery. The primary drum separates a uniform 10% portion of the material and deposits the other 90% into a holding bin.

The 10% portion of the production lot is dropped into a secondary revolving drum that separates a further uniform 10% portion of this material and deposits the other 90% into the holding bin. The uniform material is finally separated into four samples that are each equivalent to 1/4% of the total production lot. The bulk sample circuit cuts the material 3,640,000 times per hour on a blended and fixed flow of approximately 5 pounds per minute. The circuit is extremely efficient and accurate in producing four similar homogeneous samples.

The four samples are provided to the laboratory for preparation and determination of content.