Pyrite Dry Enrichment Using a Vibrated Fluidized Bed

"Recovering pyrite from the gangue with high sulfur content is of great significance for both economic development and environment protection in China. Due to the global water shortage and high cost in wet separation processes, it is urgent to explore more efficient energy and water conservation method in mineral processing field. This study has proposed an innovative method based on density difference for fine pyrite enrichment by vibration fluidized bed. In this study, the total sulfur content (TSC) of the gangue sample is 19.18%, and the pyrite is disseminated with fine granularity in the gangue which should be crushed for dissociation. The combination and dissociation experiment of -6mm gangue shows that the dominant density of -6+3mm, -3+1mm and -1+0.5mm comminuted material is +2.9g/cm3. Based on the analysis of characteristic, the effects of various factors on the separation performance were experimental studied. The results show that gas velocity, vibration intensity and bed height all have the significant effects. With the increases of superficial gas velocity, vibration intensity and bed height, the separation performance all presents a decreasing tendency. Additionally, the TSC of -6+3mm, -3+1mm and -1+0.5mm materials are respectively up to 37.94% , 35.43% and 30.61% at the optimum conditions, which are the 1.72?1.90 and 2.29 times as much as the TSC of raw material, respectively. This study demonstrates the vibrated fluidized bed can recovery pyrite from the gangue effectively.INTRODUCTIONWith the increasing mining and separation of coal, the yield of gangue has a further growth tendency, which has become one of the largest reserves of industrial waste (Querol et al., 2008). However, many harmful elements, such as S?NOx and Hg, is existed in the gangue leading the serious damage to the soil and environment (Hao, Yun, Zhanyuan, Sen, & Song, 2013). In addition, the economic would be suffered from the loss resulting in the occupied of arable land caused by the accumulation of gangue (Yeheyis, Shang, & Yanful, 2009; Zhou, Liu, Yan, Fang, & Wang, 2012). Therefore, the government has put forward the policies of ""green mining"" in China (Xing & Gao, 2009; R. Zhang, Ai, Zhou, Ju, & Zhang, 2015; Zheng, Du, Li, Qiu, & Yang, 2015). Among different research areas of coal utilization, extracting the useful minerals has become one of hot topics (Ledin & Pedersen, 1996; P. Patra & Natarajan, 2003; Partha Patra & Natarajan, 2004). At present, many researchers has devoted to the desulfurization of coal all over the world. As result, the sulfur element, which is mainly existed in the presence of pyrite, would transferred in the tailings, namely the gangue. Meanwhile, the pyrite is important raw materials to produce rubber, paper, textile and match. Consequently, recovering the pyrite from the gangue is not only suitable to the requirement of ""green mining"", but it could turn the waste into the treasure having the important significance."