The presence of pyrite poses a significant impediment to the comprehensive utilization of coal gangue, which is a prevalent solid waste in industrial production. However, the current efficacy of jig separation for pyrite in fine-grade coal gangue remains unsatisfactory. To investigate the influence of particle size distribution on the jig separation of pyrite in fine-grade coal gangue, the raw material was crushed to less than 2 mm using a jaw crusher and subsequently sieved to obtain its particle size distribution curve. Upon fitting the curve, it was observed that it tends towards the Rosin-Rammler (RRSB) and Fuller distributions. Leveraging these two-parameter distribution curves, adjustments were made to determine the mass within each particle size range before conducting thorough mixing followed by jig separation. The results indicate that for fine-grade gangue particles smaller than 2 mm, the RRSB distribution with a uniformity coefficient of n = 0.85 exhibits the most effective separation, although it is comparable to the separation achieved using the size distribution of raw ore. On the other hand, employing the Fuller distribution with modulus of distribution q = 1.5 yields superior separation performance. In comparison to the raw ore, the concentrate shows an increase in sulfur (S) and iron (Fe) content by factors of 3.4 and 2.4, respectively. Furthermore, compared to the RRSB distribution, there is an increase in S and Fe content by 1.91% and 2.30%, respectively; the contents of S and Fe in tailings is 0.71% and 2.72%, which can be directly used as raw materials for coating materials. Therefore, for fine-grade coal gangue particles, jigging under the Fuller distribution demonstrates better effectiveness than under the RRSB distribution.

The presence of pyrite in coal gangue significantly degrades the performance of its prepared kaolin in ceramic and coating applications. Implementing separation techniques to remove pyrite can markedly enhance the quality of kaolin products. However, there is no research on the effect of material particle size distribution on the separation effect in the current study on shaking table separation. For this reason, the coal gangue was crushed to different maximum particle sizes in this study, and its particle size distribution was fitted and analyzed. Based on the fitting results, the Rosin–Rammler–Sperling–Bennet (RRSB) distribution with a uniformity coefficient n of 0.74 was used to study the influence of the characteristic particle size d_e on the separation effect. Fuller distribution with distribution modulus q of 0.45 was also used to study the impact of maximum particle size d_max. The results showed that the Fuller distribution reduced the contents of SO₃ and Fe₂O₃ by 30.85% and 25.71%, respectively, compared with the raw materials. In comparison, the RRSB distribution reduced the contents of SO₃ and Fe₂O₃ by 41.01% and 30.85%, respectively, indicating that the separation effect of the RRSB distribution was better than that of the Fuller distribution. In addition, when the characteristic particle size d_e of the RRSB distribution was 37–42 μm, the content of SO₃ and Fe₂O₃ in the tailings varied very little, and the separation effect was stable. This study demonstrates that the particle size distribution significantly influences the separation efficiency of the shaking table, providing a novel idea for enhancing shaking table separation processes. Future studies may further explore the effect of another parameter or two-parameter coupling of RRSB distribution and Fuller distribution on the separation effect of the shaking table.