description referring now to the drawing raw coal which is a mixture of coal shale and various refuse particles which has first been screened to remove all particles larger than a predetermined size such as for example approximately a half inch is introduced into a mixing tank 10 together with a suspension of magnetizable particles which may include re cycled fine coal and refuse elements at 12 from the outlet of the mixing tank 10 the mixture of raw coal and separating suspension is fed to a first separating stage which may consist of a heavy medium cyclone 14 or a plurality of heavy medium cyclones in parallel of which function it is to separate the raw coal mixture according to the density of the particles thus a relatively light fraction will be delivered from the first separating stage 14 and introduced through a conduit 16 to a first draining screen means 18 while a relatively heavy fraction will be introduced through a conduit 20 to a second draining screen means 22 coarse particles of a size larger than the apertures of the draining screen means 18 and 22 e g 0 5 mm will pass to washing screens 24 and 26 respectively from whence they will be discharged from the process a portion of the undiluted separating suspensions containing fine coal and refuse particles that have passed through the draining screen means 18 and 22 is passed directly to a heavy medium sump 28 which is also employed to adjust the specific gravity of the separating suspension collected therein before it is recycled through conduit 12 to the mixing tank 10 another portion.