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By Kr. J. Dedelyanova

Selective flocculation of iron minerals could improve the economics of high intensity magnetic separation as concomitant process. When the minerals are finely disseminated is necessary a finer grinding to be applied which generates a lot of slimes. The HIMS is not enough efficient for particles below 20 microns ? territory where the selective flocculation is already well known industrial practice, so the combination of these two methods of beneficiation can bring a higher grade at high recovery to be achieved. The dynamics and selectivity of the precipitation process is studied in batch tests with flocculant starch and dispersants sodium silicate and sodium hexametaphosphate. The influence of preliminary conditioning with nitrogen acid at pH 2 before flocculation is also investigated. Flowsheet including these two methods is tested and the distribution of iron is shown.

Jan 1, 2014

By E. A. Brocchi

This work is dedicated to the chemical treatment of a typical EAF dust by chlorine content agents. The residue contains 48% Fe2O3 and 28% ZnO mainly in the franklinite structural form. The others less compounds are: 4.00% CaO, 2.60% MnO, 2.20% MgO, 1.08% PbO, 0.36% Cr2O3, 0.21% B2O3, 0.03% CdO and 0.01% NiO. The experiments purpose is selectively to remove zinc from the residue leaving the iron behind. Thermodynamics studies have indicated some roasting possibilities. The experimental results have shown that both HCl leaching and carbochlorination will remove iron and zinc without any selectivity. However, either the chlorine or the calcium chloride roasting seems to form, preferentially, the zinc chloride. So, it will be presented how the EAF Dust can be treated by the using of chlorine roastings process such as carbochlorination in order to separate the zinc and iron present in the frankilinite, main EAF dust content.

Jan 1, 2014

By C. Y. Wang

Based on Slurry Electrolysis, and combined with the problems of extraction antimony, lead and their separation from complicated antimony-lead concentrate, a series of tests have been done in this paper. Using Slurry Electrolysis to treat complicated antimony-lead concentrate, antimony and lead can be separated in one step. And 2# metal antimony can be achieved in cathode directly at the same time. Lead in concentrate is restrained still in the residue at the form of PbCl2. After converting the residue with ammonium carbonate and removing sulfur with kerosene, the high quality of lead concentrate (Pb is above 45%, S is below 15%) and pure sulfur can be achieved, respectively. The recovery of all in Slurry Electrolysis process is as: Sb 95%, Pb 95%, Ag 80%, S 60%.

Jan 1, 2014

By F. C. Yi

Discontinuous and consecutive process was applied to probe into the Kinetics and adsorption theory for Cs+ adsorbed by Zeolites under the conditions of temperature, time and fixed-bed dynamic adsorption. It indicated that the sorption kinetics behavior of zeolite?s sorption on Cs+ is ac-cord with pseudo-secondary velocity equation, velocity constant k2=0.0005213 g?mg min-1, and equilibrium adsorptive capacity is 147.0588 mg?g-1; The equation can be expressed as: Y=0.0068X+0.0887; From the analyzing of diffusion coefficients on different temperatures and times, the coefficient of diffusion is not only related with the fabric of mineral and the character of ions but also the temperature and time; When the ambient temperature hoisted, the diffusion velocity augmented rapidly; Cs+ would get over a certain energy barrier when it enters into structure of zeo-lite; This energy is expressed by activation energy, and its value is E=131.668818 kJ?mol-1; There are two dominating adsorption mechanisms in the system of zeolite absorb Cs+: ionic interchange and surface coordinate adsorption.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. X. Li

In order to control the pulp level in flotation column which has long time-delay and great inertia, and is difficult to establish an accurate mathematical model, a Fuzzy-PID dual mode controller is applied. This method takes advantage of both strong flexibility and good reliability of fuzzy logic and high precision of PID. With the very stable and reliable process instruments, the control system has a good control performance and results the stable control of flotation column.

Jan 1, 2014

By Mohsen Hashemzadehfini

Nowadays heap leaching has become established as a mineral processing technology for treatment of some low grade minerals such as copper, gold, and zinc, etc. Heap height, particle size, leach reagent consumption, and metal recovery are four important metallurgical parameters in a hydrometallurgical process like heap leaching. This paper investigated the effects of heap height and particle size on copper recovery as well as acid consumption. Three heap heights of 2, 4 and 6 meters and two particle size fractions of less than 25.4 mm and 50.8 mm were selected as variables in the experiments. The research results showed the inverse relation between heap height and copper recovery as well as acid consumption. Under given conditions, the copper recoveries of minus 25.4 mm ore are 78.63%, 66.27% and 52.88% higher than that of minus 50.8 mm samples for the heap heights of 2, 4, and 6 m, respectively. Both copper recovery and acid consumption increase with decreasing particle size. Keywords: heap leaching, heap height, particle size, acid consumption

Sep 1, 2012

By A. V. Kanarskay?

The research is aimed at involving in the processing of poor platinummetal natural and technogenic raw materials. The purpose of the research is the creation of a multifactorial complex of innovations in the system of ore preparation and separation cycles, which ensure a high efficiency of flotation enrichment of hard-to-treat raw materials. In the usual practice of enrichment, minerals of the platinum group (PGM) of less than 10 microns in size are the source of inevitable process losses. For poor raw materials, it is precisely thin PGMs that are characteristic, their proportion sometimes being almost 100%, and their opening leads to the formation of a large amount of slime, which adversely affects the efficiency of flotation. To reduce the yield of slimes and increase the selectivity degree of the opening of the PGM in the ore preparation cycle, a dry grinding scheme and pneumoclassification of the milling material has been developed to obtain fractions of different fineness, density and morphology of the particles. From 2 to 5-fold reduction in the yield of slurries for various ores has been achieved. The separation cycle successfully tested are: flotation of fractions in separate cycles with a differentiated choice of the reagent regime; preliminary selective flocculation of slime fraction material; use of a new generation of bioreagents for flocculation and flotation. A new approach to subsoil research is protected by a patent. The dependence of the efficiency of biocollectors on the composition of biomineral extract from the processed raw materials, which forms the basis of new reagents, is established. The possibility of obtaining the degree of extraction of PGM, native gold and sulphides from finely ground pre-fractionated poor ores with the use of biocollectors of at least 85% is proved. With conventional reagents, the extraction of PGM is 12-23% lower, with the use of traditional ore-preparation apparatuses, the PGM recovery rate was halved. Methods for the long-term storage and preparation in industrial conditions of biocollector reagents that do not require the purification of waste waters from them have been developed. The developed multifactorial system of intensification of flotation enrichment can be introduced to recovery PGM from tailings of enrichment of titanomagnetite, chromite and copper-nickel ores.

Jan 1, 2018

By G. X. Du

Reaction kinetics of serpentine and hydrochloric acid is theoretical basis for optimizing reaction process conditions of serpentine and hydrochloric acid. Kinetics of serpentine and hydrochloric acid was studied in this paper. The results indicated that apparent reaction order to hydrochloric acid was two and reaction kinetic equation could be expressed as: 2HClHCl,ddtckct-=·. The diffusion rates of hydrogen ions in liquid film on surface of serpentine particle and in amorphous silica layer generated in the reaction and chemical reaction velocity during the reaction had important effects on to-tal reaction velocity. And chemical reaction velocity had the most significant influence. The relation of conversion rate of magnesia xMgO with reaction time could be expressed as: 1(1)xkt--=·.

Jan 1, 2014

By Igor P. Solozhenkin, Peter M. Solozhenkin, Sanda Krausz

"In this work, authors will show the efficiency of computer technology and chemical programs at studying collectors for flotation of minerals of elements of platinum group (EPG). Clusters various minerals EPG (flotation reagents) are created, named us clusters minerals (reagents) as their structure corresponds to the chemical formula, and the distance between separate atoms corresponds to the known tabulated data. By molecular modeling are investigated clusters sperrylite PtAs2, stumpfilyte PtSb, sadberryte PdSb, sobolevskite PdBi, palladoarsenyte Pd2As, paolovyte Pd2Sn, rustenburgyte (Pt3Sn, Pt6Sn2) and their computer parameters (absolute rigidity, electronegativity, transfer factors of carry, charges of the atoms) are determined. Tellurides of palladium (IV, II) merenskyite PdTl2 and kotulskyte PdTe and platinum clusters are investigated: PtFe4, Pt3Fe, PtFe (Pt2Fe2), Pt2Fe (Cu) Ni. The technique of attachment of the collector (composites) to cluster atoms EPG is offered. For the first time, it is established that at linkage of flotation collectors on monodentate, bidentate and bridged to circuits with atoms clusters the minerals containing atoms As, Sb, Bi, Pb, Sn, reaction of connection with change of a degree of oxidation of these atoms and occurrence of a proton operates. It is executed virtual skirling organic compounds connections by the developed criteria from accessible libraries of a database. The principle of an estimation of interaction energy for flotation reagents with mineral clusters is offered. It is developed the prognosis of collector activity evaluation (P?AE) and his values for candidates in collectors for flotation of minerals EPG are calculated. For flotation of ores containing Pt and Pd minerals, a number of reagents, including compounds on basis P (III), for innovational technology of Pt, Pd mineral flotation are recommended. Key words: flotation, minerals, flotation reagents on the basis of phosphorus (III), molecular modelling, chemical programs, program ????? , electronic energy."

Jan 1, 2014

By Zhu Yangge, Zheng Guibing, Hu Xiaoxing

"Because of the similar crystal structure and surface properties, it is very difficult to realize the efficient separation of magnesite and dolomite by flotation, which is the main reason restricting the utilization of magnesite resources with dolomite symbiotic. To deal with a magnesite resources with high content of calcium impurity in northwest China, a novel decalcification technology by combining flotation with leaching is proposed in this paper. In flotation process, a novel flotation collector with good efficiency and low temperature resistance was developed, and the depression effect of sodium hexametaphosphate was investigated. In leaching process, the leaching rate difference of calcium and magnesium was observed. By industrial test, from the magnesite ore with MgO content of 43.96%,the grade and recovery of obtained concentrate ( calculated by MgO) are 47.28% and 67.68% respectively, at the same time, CaO content decreases from 3.91% to 0.30%, which means that more than 95% of CaO impurity is removed.INTRODUCTIONMagnesite is one of the main raw materials for the production of refractory materials, and it is widely used in metallurgy, chemicals, ceramic, construction and other industries. China is the most important supplier of highquality magnesite resources, accounting for about 60-70% of the world's identified supply of magnesite products is provide by China (Jewell, 2014). In recent years, high-quality magnesite ores can be directly used are going to run out in China, and the utilization of magnesite resources with high impurity content have drawn more attention.The main purpose of purification for magnesite is to remove SiO2 and CaO impurities which affects the strength of the refractory material. Flotation is the commonly used method to remove impurities in magnesite ore. Reverse flotation with cationic collector is usually adopted to remove silicon containing impurities, and a great deal of literature has been reported (Santana A. N. and Peres A. E. C., 2001; Wang and Sun, 2008; Zhu et al, 2014; Wu et al, 2015; Ivan B. et al, 2017). But when the major gangue component is dolomite, it is very difficult to realize the efficient separation due to the similar crystal structure and surface properties between magnesite and dolomite. To solve this problem, researches have studied the surface properties of magnesite and dolomite, such as wettability, electrical property, solubility and solution chemistry (Nermin and Nurgul, 2006; Nermin 2006; Ozbek and Abali, 1999; Lacin et al, 2005; Bayrak et al, 2006; Bakan et al, 2006; Chen G. and Tao D., 2004), but the commonly studied direct flotation using oleic acid as collector is still hard to receive an ideal effect."

Jan 1, 2018

With the ambitious target of adding another 2,00,000 MW of power generation by the year 2017 in India the demand for coal is bound to grow. The non-coking coal deposits in India are characterized as high ash and difficult-to-wash coals. Quality improvement by beneficiation is almost mandatory due to MoEF notification to use <34% ash coal for all power plants except those located at pithead. Most of the coal washeries in India are based on wet process, where the coal fines are allowed to settle in thickeners. The coarser particles settle faster leaving the fine particles suspended for longer period. The dispersed fine coal particles contain some surface charge, which leads to the development of electrical repulsion between the particles, and as a result of this, the suspension becomes more stable. In order to destabilize the colloidal suspension, flocculants are usually added, so that the settling rate of the fine particles also increases. These flocculants are of cationic, anionic and non-anionic depending upon the type of charge released when dispersed in water. The flocculants may act partly for charge neutralization and partly for inter particle bridging and electrostatic patch formation. The effectiveness of any type of flocculants depends upon the molecular weight and charge density of the polymer. The paper discusses the settling behavior of non-coking coal fines suspension by using different flocculants. Keywords: floculent, coal fines, sedimentation rate, effluent

Sep 1, 2012

By L. Y. Feng

The percentage of leached zinc in massive zinc oxide ores (11.7% Zn, >2 mm) is up to 73.3 % in 120 days. Alternatively, crushed to -0.154 mm, mixed with cement 5% (wt), pelletized and solidified. The diameters of the pellets obtained are between 5 mm to 8 mm. When the pellet solidification periods are 3 days, 10 days and 45 days respectively, the alkaline leaching rates of zinc in the pellets are up to 95.8%, 89.1% and 76.4% respectively. Decreasing the solidification time can re-duce reaction time, increase dissolution of zinc in pellets and lower the effect of initial zinc concentration on leaching rate. The experiment results show that the minimum solidification time is three days, and the kinetic study indicates that alkaline leaching of the low grade zinc oxide pellets is controlled by the diffusion of the leach liquor through the gangue layer in the whole leach process, and the apparent rate constants are 3.33×10-2 day-1, 9.18×10-3 day-1, 5.82×10-3 day-1 respectively.

Jan 1, 2014

By V. Sheikhzadeh, M. Saghaeian, R. Hejazi, M. Zare

High Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) plays a major role in increasing specific surface area of iron ore concentrate for producing pellet feed. HPGR grinding mechanism implies that material be compressed between the two rolls, therefore layer of material must be able to resist required pressure for achieving suitable grinding conditions. In this study for determining a simple relationship between material pressure resistance ability and HPGR main design parameters, piston press tests were performed on different iron ore concentrate samples along with HPGR Blaine increasing tests. Piston press tests results showed that by decreasing moisture content, material pressure resistance increased and in constant moisture content this parameter will change based on material specifications. HPGR Blaine increasing tests results showed that by decreasing moisture content, HPGR specific throughput and working gap increased and in constant moisture content this parameter will change based on material specifications. For all of the studied samples at worst condition, we got the results including: HPGR delta gap equal to zero, specific throughput lower than 200 ts/hm3.According to the tests results, HPGR Applicability Index (HAI) can be introduced at four different class types from 1 (weak) to 4 (excellent). This index determines achievable specific throughput and possibility of using HPGR according to material specifications, i.e. for HAI 1-4 the pressure resistance is <90, 90 to<125, 125 to <150 and = 150 bar, respectively. Similarly for HAI 1-4 specific throughput is <200, =200, =220 and =250, respectively. So based on design moisture content, if concentrate HAI is 3 or 4, HPGR is a correct choice. For HAI 2, HPGR can also be used. But for a material with HAI equal to 1, HPGR is not a good solution. As a result in order to apply HPGR for HAI 1, material condition such as moisture or slime content should be decreased.

Jan 1, 2018

By H. M. Gao

According to the difficulty of dolomite removal from collophanite,normal-reverse floatation process has been adopted in floatation with the use of highly selective collector G-4 and depressant S721. Good indexes of flotation have been obtained with the run-of-mine ore containing 17.96 % P2O5 and 2.31 % MgO being upgraded to a concentrate containing more than 30% P2O5 and less than 1% MgO. The reagent interaction mechanism in low grade collophanite flotation has been stu-died by FTIR analysis and theoretical calculation. The results indicate that the interaction between collector G-4 and collophanite is the result of chemical adsorption in combination with physical ad-sorption with chemical adsorption playing the major role. Depressant S721 adsorbs on dolomite surface to form a water film and effectively depresses the flotation of dolomite and reduces the MgO content in the concentrate.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. F. He

There are three polymorphic modifications in pyrrhotite (monoclinic, hexagonal and orthorhombic), with monoclinic and hexagonal polymorph being more abundant. The floatability of different crystalline structures of pyrrhotite (monoclinic and hexagonal) is studied in this paper. It is shown that the floatability difference of monoclinic and hexagonal is obvious and that the flotation recovery of monoclinic pyrrhotite is greater than that of hexagonal pyrrhotite using different collectors . Using butyl dithiophosphate as collector, the flotation recovery of pyrrhotite is higher than when sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate and sodium butyl xanthate are used as the collectors. Monoclinic and hexagonal pyrrhotites are more easily activated by Cu2+ in acidic conditions than in alkaline conditions, while Cu2+ can not activate hexagonal pyrrhotite when sodium diethyldithiocarbamate was used as the collector. By the measurement of contact angle, it is indicated that monoclinic and hex-agonal pyrrhotite float well and are easily activated by Cu2+when dithiophosphate was used as the collector. Using sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate as a collector, the flotation behavior of pyrrhotite was investigated. The relationship between potential and pH range for pyrrhotite flotation was established. The results show that the flotation of pyrrhotite is dependent on pulp potential at certain pH values.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Z. Khan, Veerendra Singh, Y. Rama Murthy, S. Prasad, Sunil Kumar Tripathy, Gajanan Kapure

"In this study, a low-grade ferruginous low-grade chromite ore was subjected to reduction roasting by using conventional heating as well as microwave heating. Sukinda chromite ore deposit contains majorly iron-bearing minerals as gangue phase. The magnetic susceptibility of these minerals enhances effectively after reduction roasting. Alteration of crystalline structure and magnetic property of these metals enables separation of low-grade ore by using magnetic separation. Conventional roasting studies by varying the temperature, time of reduction and reductant dosage were changed for low-grade ferruginous chromite ore. Similarly, microwave power, retention/exposure time and reductant dosage varied for reduction roasting studies under microwave environment. It is found that low-grade ferruginous chromite ore can be upgraded by reduction roasting and 61.2% Cr2O3 was recovered with a chromium-to-iron ratio of 1.93 from feed chromium-to-iron ratio of 1. Microwave reduction roasting studies resulted in upgradation of chromium-to-iron ratio to 1.73 with a recovery of 21% Cr2O3.INTRODUCTION The chromite ore occurs as a spinel containing oxides of chromium, iron, magnesium and aluminium. Most of the Indian chromite deposits are of ferruginous (rich in iron content) which indicates the abundance of ferruginous gangue minerals along with chromite. The primary use of chromite ore is towards the production of ferrochrome alloys. Chromite ores with less than 40% Cr2O3 and the chromium-to-iron ratio (Cr-to-Fe ratio) <1.8 is considered to be unsuitable for the smelting process (Tripathy et al. 2012, Tripathy et al. 2012a). A considerable amount of low-grade chromite ore and overburden excavated during chromite mining is getting accumulated every year, causing a threat to the environment. Its disposal poses a significant challenge and, hence, the beneficiation of low-grade chromite ore and its utilisation has been attracting a lot of attention. Different physical method of beneficiation methods is generally employed for the improvement of the Cr-to-Fe ratio (Tripathy et al. 2012, Murthy et al. 2011, Tripathy et al. 2012a, Tripathy et al. 2013, Tripathy et al. 2016, Tripathy et al. 2017, Tripathy et al. 2017a). It is observed that the enrichment of the chromite ore is carried out by using gravity and in some places by magnetic separation. However, the enrichment of Cr-to-Fe ratio from low-grade ferruginous chromite ore is difficult by using the above-mentioned beneficiation methods due to the presence of near gravity and near-magnetic susceptibility minerals along with chromite. However, an alternative beneficiation method is needed to explore for the beneficiation of such mineral deposits. Reduction roasting followed by magnetic separation is an alternative option for the separation of these types of ores which is widely reported for the iron and manganese ore (Li, et al., 2010; Chun, et al., 2014, Rath et al., 2018). These processes are majorly focussed on differentiating the magnetic susceptibility between minerals and subsequent separation by using magnetic field. The main advantage of such method is dry process option along with the pre-processed product for the costly smelting process. Also, the roasting of minerals in a microwave environment is also an active research topic in the recent time. So, the amenability of the separation feature of the roasting process by using conventional heating as well as microwave heating can be can be studied for the low grade ferruginous chromite ores."

Jan 1, 2018

By Z. M. Dai

Microorganisms in AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) were enriched in 9K culture medium. The enrichment was applied to leach copper pyrite after the microbial community structure and metabolism was stable. Before and after bioleaching, the microbial DNA was extracted and applied to RFLP (restricted fragment length polymorphism) analysis to demonstrate the relationship between the leaching efficiency and the change of microbial community. Atomic absorption spectrometry results showed that when concentration of the pulp was 10% and pH were 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5, the leaching rate were 56%, 57% and 34% on the 18th day respectively. These results indicated that the rise of pH resulted in the decrease of leaching rate. In lower pH condition, the growth of microbe was faster: when pH was 1.5, the microbial cell number reached to 1.4×107cells/mL on the 9th day; while pH was 2.5, the microbial cell number decreased to 4×106cells/mL. The analysis of microbial community structure showed that Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans were dominant species before bioleaching (account for 43% and 32% respectively). And after bioleaching, these two species were still dominant when the initial bioleaching pH were1.5 and 2.0. While the initial bioleaching pH was 2.5, the proportion of these two species decreased. These results demonstrated that the initial bioleaching pH would affect the microbial community structure in bioleaching system at room temperature, and this affect could lead to different copper pyrites bioleaching efficiency.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. S. Sun, P. Gao, Y. F. Li, J. W. Yu

"Oolitic hematite ore is one of the most refractory iron ores in the world. It is not feasible to separate iron minerals from raw ore by conventional mineral processing methods. In recent years, a new technology called coal-based reduction followed by magnetic separation has been employed to produce metallic iron powder from oolitic hematite ore effectively. In order to find the nucleation mechanism, a thermodynamic analysis of the carbothermic reduction of oolitic hematite ore was conducted by the HSC 6.0 thermochemical software. The phase transition and microstructure changes during the coal-based reduction were also investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed that the iron oxides in the oolitic ore were reduced to metallic iron following the route of Fe2O3–Fe3O4–FeO–Fe in reduction process. The reduction reactions preferentially occur in the high activity regions to form a higher concentration of Fe elements, and then more supersaturated Fe separated out to form new phase nuclei. Under the action of homo-aggregation and principle of minimum free energy, the iron cores continuously absorbed migratory Fe around and grew into quasi-spherical iron particles embedded in slag phase. INTRODUCTION With the rapid increase of steel industry, premium grade iron ore in China has been gradually exhausted, and its supply has become bottleneck for the development of iron and steel industry (Guo et al., 2015). Therefore, it is urgent to exploit the refractory iron ores, such as oolitic hematite ore. Oolitic hematite ore is widely distributes in France, Germany, America, Canada, Pakistan, China, and among other countries (Maynard and Van Houten, 2004; Li et al., 2011). In China, the explored reserve of oolitic hematite ore is 3.72 billion tons, which accounts for approximately 1/9 of total iron ore resources of China (Gao et al, 2016). Oolitic hematite ore possesses complex composition,"

Jan 1, 2018

Three high-grade limestone ores (CaO content over than 53 %) with different geological origin have been characterized for the synthesis of aragonite precipitated calcium carbonate. Limestone ores examined in this study showed different crystal particle size that cause difference in disintegration degree and surface area of the synthesized slaked limes. The limestone ore with smaller crystal particle size showed higher disintegration degree and also yielded slaked lime with smaller surface area, which is good for the synthesis of aragonite precipitated calcium carbonate. The synthesis of aragonite PCC using the limestone with a small crystal particle size was yielded needle-shaped aragonite with the aspect ratio of about 14. Keywords: limestone, lime, slaked lime, precipitated calcium carbonate, aragonite, accelerated carbonation

Sep 1, 2012

By Elves Matiolo

This paper describes, in detail, results obtained from a research study of a complex iron ore aiming to produce a pellet feed concentrate with at least 65% of Fe and less than 3.5% of SiO2 in the final concentrate. The work includes an ore desliming followed by column flotation at laboratory scale. The ore sample was from Carajás province - Brazil and represents a complex low grade compact itabirite ore, analyzing 35.9% Fe, 45.1% SiO2 and 0.57% of Al2O3. Yet, the feed was treated previously by magnetic separation and grounded to 97% < 20 µm; this sample was named MAG 2. The chemical and mineralogical characterization of the MAG 2 sample showed that Fe and SiO2 grades were 50.7% and 24.3% respectively and was composed mainly by hematite, goethite and quartz. The particle size distribution, using a laser diffraction technique, showed that 90% of the particles were < 18 µm; 50% less than 8 µm and 10% minor than 1 µm. When the cationic reverse flotation without desliming was tested the selectivity of the process was very low and did not meet the concentrate metallurgical goals of the pellet feed product. However, when desliming was applied prior to flotation, a concentrate product with chemical characteristics of the pellet feed was obtained. The best results after desliming and column flotation achieved global iron metallurgical recovery of 72% with Fe grade in the concentrate of 66.5% and 2.1% SiO2 using starch as depressant for the iron oxides minerals at 1200 g/t ? 1500 g/t and an amine as the quartz collector at 100 g/t concentration (pH constant, at 10.5). It is believed that the desliming stage was key in the separation of the iron bearing particles and has a high potential for the flotation process of this type of ores.

Sep 1, 2012