Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : The extension of the washability curve and of the curve of grade versus density to ores poses problems, because at high densities, only bromoform (2. 85) and methylene iodide (3. 31) are available, i. e. , for densities above 2. 5-2. 6 these curves are known only at three or four points to which it is possible to add two supplementary points corresponding to the limits of the range of variation; the densimetric zone beyond 3. 3 remains in practice inaccessible. To overcome this difficulty, the Ore Dressing Laboratory of the Free University of Brussels has introduced the 'fictitious density' fractions which consist of construction of the missing part of the washability curves by estimating a series of fictitious separating densities.