The paper describes the design of the dilute medium and medium recovery circuits installed at the coal preparation plants at the Cornwall Coal Company's Fingal Mine, and the BP Coal Australia's Howick Mine. These circuits minimize the use of clarified water for rinsing to improve the mass transfer of adhering medium from the coal surface into the carrying liquid, and have been combined with the use of two stage magnetic separator. The separator utilizes a conventional concurrent first stage and a counter-rotation second stage. This combintion results in high medium recoveries during both normal operation, and start up and shut down phases when large quantities of medium can be most from a conventional circuit.