Experimental Study and Industrial Application of Rigid–Flexible Coupling Screening for Difficult-to-Screen Sticky and Moist Gold Ores

Screening is a critical link in the separation of gold ores. However, issues such as the agglomeration of material masses and screen aperture blinding often lead to low screening precision and poor desliming performance, severely impacting the efficiency of subsequent crushing processes. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a rigid–flexible coupled screening method for viscous and moist gold ores. The time-frequency response characteristics of the screen surface motion were investigated, the influence of processing capacity and moisture content on screening performance was analyzed, and an industrial performance evaluation of the rigid–flexible coupled screen surface was conducted. Laboratory and industrial test results demonstrate that the rigid–flexible coupled screen surface exhibits a periodic, non-regular waveform with a maximum peak vibration intensity of 14.79 g. Screening efficiency is synergistically inhibited by moisture content and processing capacity. When the ore moisture content is below 3% and the processing capacity ranges from 15 to 22.5 t/(h·m2), the screening efficiency can exceed 85%. Compared with conventional screen surfaces, the implementation of the rigid–flexible coupled screen surface achieved a desliming efficiency of 91%, a maximum processing capacity in the crushing stage of 380 tons per hour, a nearly 12% improvement in the screening efficiency of the closed-circuit checking process for crushed products, and an approximately 8% reduction in the circulating load ratio of the crushing circuit. These enhancements collectively ensure the stable operation of both the screening and crushing processes.