Mineral Recovery Rate Calculator

Work out mineral recovery rate instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Mineral Recovery Rate Calculator

The two-product formula computes recovery from assays alone: recovery = c(f - t) / (f(c - t)), where f, c and t are feed, concentrate and tailings grades. Mass pull, the fraction of feed reporting to concentrate, is (f - t)/(c - t). No weighing of streams is needed, which is why assays alone can close a plant balance.

Formulas

Two-product formula

Recovery % = c x (f - t) x 100 / (f x (c - t))

Mass pull

Mass pull % = (f - t) x 100 / (c - t)

Worked example

With the default values below, Mineral Recovery Rate Calculator returns Metallurgical Recovery of 90.387%. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Feed Grademinimum 0 %: 1.2 %
Concentrate Grademinimum 0 %: 28 %
Tailings Grademinimum 0 %: 0.12 %
Feed Tonnageminimum 0 t/day: 10,000 t/day

Results

Metallurgical Recovery: 90.387%
Concentrate Mass Pull: 3.8737%
Concentrate Produced: 387.37
Metal Recovered: 108.465

Step by step

1Values used
2Two-product formula
3Mass pull
4Metallurgical Recovery= 90.387
5Concentrate Mass Pull= 3.8737
6Concentrate Produced= 387.37
7Metal Recovered= 108.465

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does tailings grade matter so much?

It is the direct measure of metal lost. Halving tailings grade from 0.12% to 0.06% on a 1.2% feed lifts recovery by around 5 percentage points, worth far more than most throughput gains.

What if there are three products?

The two-product formula no longer applies and a three-product formula or a full least-squares mass balance using stream tonnages and multiple assays is required.