Mineralogical Characteristics that affect Processing of a Microfine Manganese Carbonate Ore from Huayan, China

Detailed mineralogical and metallurgical investigations were carried out on a phosphorous-bearing manganese carbonate ore from the Huayuan manganese mine, Hunan, China. Microprobe analyses indicate that the Manganese occurs mainly in calc-rhodochrosite and in rhodochrosite. The cOll'pOsitional range of these manganese carbonate minerals is 50 -80 % MnOJ3, 0 -35 % CaOJ3, 5-35 % MgC03 and 0 -15 F~. The manganese carbonate minerals are very fine grained, IOOSt are between 4.6 and 9.4 1m in diameter. The small grains are clustered into aggregates that form bands 0.5 to 10 rnn wide. The phosphorous-bearing mineral in the ore is fluorapatite and is in grains that are generally smaller than 6 1m in diameter. Metallurgical tests show that it is possible to concentrate the aggregates of manganese carbonate minerals by high intensity magnetic separation, and to reduce the phosphorous content by rpasting the concentrate to convert the manganese carl::x>nates to insoluble hausmannite, and then leaching the roast product with HCI to dissolve the fluorapatite.