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By W. H. Lang, C. H. Cox, H. Snell

The treatment of unaltered western phosphate ores by both wet and dry methods is discussed. The objective of the beneficiation is to produce salable Phosphate rock ( 31% P205), with an economic recovery of P205.

Jan 1, 1981

By C. H. Cox

The Alumet Company of Golden, Colorado, is currently engaged in the development of their Diamond Creek and Lanes Creek phosphate ore bodies located near Soda Springs, Idaho. The Alumet Company is a partnership of National Steel, Southwire Co., and Earth Science Inc. Davy Powergas, Inc., of Florida was contracted by Alumet to perform an evaluation study of these properties and, in general, determine the tonnage of altered and unaltered phosphate reserves which would be amenable to beneficiation and production of merchantable phosphate rock (defined as material with a P2O5 content of 3 1.0% and greater). The Colorado School of Mines Research Institute was retained by Davy Powergas to develop a beneficiation method for the studies of the altered and unaltered ores. Ore reserves were classified by Davy in a comprehensive range of categories such that any partial grouping could be made as dictated by future mine planning, mine or mill design, or prevalent economic conditions. Categories included ore horizon, stripping ratio, degree of certainty of their existence, and physical and chemical characteristics. The last category was of interest for beneficiation considerations in that it dealt with the degree of alteration of the phosphate ore.

Jan 1, 1979

By G. M. Rao

It has been a universal observation that rich grades of ores and minerals are getting depleted, simultaneously the demands for civilization are ever increasing coupled with occurrence of poor grades of ores and minerals posing a problem to the processing engineers. At the same time, the cost of mining and milling are increasing, creating a situation where the management has to handle and process low grade ores at an economic level keeping environmental stipulations and control to be safeguarded which has been an additional cost for the management to comply with.

Jan 1, 1994

By S. Lubbe

South Africa and Australia are the biggest suppliers of zircon sand to the international zirconium industry. However neither South Africa nor Australia is well known for zircon beneficiation. Geratech Zirconium Beneficiation Ltd (GZB) continued with additional research on sodium hydroxide (NaOH) cracking of zircon sand during 2002-2003. In 2003 GZB started extracting zirconium from zircon sand by means of NaOH cracking on a commercial scale. Experience has shown that temperature profile and atmospheric control inside the furnace is crucial for the beneficiation of zircon sand. Silica carryover to zirconium chemicals could result if a high temperature is used. Once the sodium silicate is extracted from the sodium zirconate and dissolved in hydrochloric acid, two distinct routes can be followed to precipitate various zirconium chemicals. The most common route is to precipitate zirconium oxychloride crystals (ZOC), with subsequent purification from all contaminants (crystal route). Less known is the process (liquid route) that involves the direct precipitation of zirconium basic sulphate (ZBS). This route will yield a less pure product, with contaminants such as silica and titanium. An important factor in this route is the prevention of silica gel formation, which could hamper final product filtration. For applications like paint drying (zirconium octoate) or antiperspirants (zirconium hydroxychloride) low levels of contaminants have no effect on the final product. The advantage of the liquid route is fewer production stages compared to the crystal route. The disadvantage of the liquid route is that the market for the products will be significantly smaller. The optimum solution could be a plant design that could cater for both routes. Another example of an application of zirconium chemicals is the use of ammonium zirconium carbonate (AZC) in the paper industry. Zirconium basic carbonate (ZBC) is dissolved in ammonium carbonate to produce AZC solution. AZC is used mainly in European countries in the paper industry. For example, carton boxes were initially produced with formaldehyde as the binder, however, it has now been replaced with AZC since formaldehyde is considered toxic. AZC reacts with the cellulose fibres in the paper to act as the binder. The resulting product is not toxic, and printing ink dries very quickly due to the porous paper structure. Other applications of zirconium chemicals involve the use of acid zirconium sulphate tetrahydrate (AZST), zirconium orthosulphate (ZOS), potassium zirconium carbonate (KZC), and zirconium hydrous oxide (ZHO). Fluoride-based zirconium chemicals like zirconium tetra-fluoride (ZrF4) and hexafluoro-zirconic acid (H2ZrF6) are used in the aluminium industry. Zirconium oxide (Zr02) can be produced from any of the abovementioned precipitated chemicals via a high-temperature decomposition process. The physical properties of such oxides can differ tremendously, depending on the final application. The fired density of sanitaryware is typically 5.8 g/cm3, compared to milling media at >6.1 g/cm3. The required fired density is achieved by controlling the precipitation and decomposition conditions for these two oxides. The same applies to stabilized and mixed oxides, for example where zirconium oxide acts as an oxygen carrier in fuel cells.

Jan 1, 2012

By L. J. Erck

H EAVY-MEDIA separation continues to be the favored process for concentrating the coarser fractions by elimination of undesirable tailing and middling fractions. The first vessel used for heavy-media separation was the closed-top cone. Further developments then led to the Akins spiral separator which fulfilled the requirements for improving metallurgica1 separation as well as gaining mechanical advantages. During the last season there has been a substantial influx of separator designs for further improvements of metallurgical separation based on the heavy- media method as well as attempting to garner further mechanical advantages with reduction in power consumption to boot. The newest of these designs was the Hardinge counter-current separator which was introduced into the field last spring in two plants. Both Hardinge separators proved satisfactory in operation and substantiat-

Jan 1, 1950

By G. Belardi

A study has been conducted to assess a new wet beneficiation treatment for the recovery of the sulphuric-acid-soluble titanium oxide contained in the waste from an Italian TiO2-pigment facility. The waste is produced during treatment of a Ti-enriched slag and contains as main components TiO2 (54%, of which 42% acid-soluble and 12% insoluble), SiO2 (27%) and A1203 (6%). Eighty percent of the material is finer than 50pm. The first step was to ascertain the possibilities offered by size classification, wet gravity separation, froth flotation and wet high-intensity magnetic separation to improve the grade and recovery of Ti02 and reduce the SiO2 content. The next step was to optimize the operating conditions of the various separations and assemble them into a complete flow- sheet. Beneficiation ensures potentially 70% recovery of the TiO2 with a concentrate grade of 80%.

Jan 1, 1998

By J. Howard Boyce

INTRODUCTION The Tsumeb Mine is situated in the northern part of South West Africa, approximately 335 air miles north-east of the port of Walvis Bay on the Atlantic Coast, and 240 air miles north of Windhoek, the capital of South west Africa. The mine came into operation in the early 1900's and has operated continuously since then except during the two world warm and the depression years of the thirties, Tsumeb Corporation purchased the property in 1947, installed a new plat, and ham built a modern tom. In addition to the concentrator which began operations in 1948, a copper smelter was started in 1962 and a lead smelter in 1963, Tonnage of ore treated in the concentrator has varied through the years, reaching a maximum of 70,000 tons per month with a current mined tonnage of approximately 50,000 tons per month. Copper concentrates, lead concentrates and zinc concentrates are produced, and for a number of years the production of a germanium enriched concentrate was an important feature of the operation, Both copper and lead concentrates are smelted in Tsumeb, while the zinc concentrates are shipped overseas. Ore change, and the installation of the smelters in Tsumeb have necessitated modifications in the concentrator operation. This paper will describe current plant practice in some detail and will touch briefly on the techniques used from 1954 to

Jan 1, 1970

By Xiaoping Xu

An albitization granite type tantalum-niobium ore from Jiangxi Province, China was taken as the research object in this paper. The main valuable minerals in this ore are tantalite-columbite and uranmicrolite, and the minerals that can be comprehensively recovered include cassiterite, sulfide minerals, topaz, zinnwaldite, and quartz-feldspar. Based on the research results of process mineralogy, the roughing process of gravity separation for coarse particles combined with flotation for fine particles is proposed. The combined cleaning process of flotation-gravity-magnetic-electric-hydrometallurgical separation is adopted for the rough concentrate of gravity separation while the combined cleaning process of gravity-flotation- hydrometallurgical separation is adopted for the rough concentrate of flotation. High intensity magnetic separation is used to separate and recover zinnwaldite and quartz-feldspar from gravity tailings. By mineral processing for the crude ore containing (TaNb)cassiterite concentrate is 0.0003% with a grade of Sn 63.22% and a recovery of Sn 47.42% while the yield of sulfide concentrate is 0.0783% with a grade of Pb 33.15% and Zn 27.09% which can be separated to get lead and zinc concentrate respectively. The yield of topaz concentrate is 0.1545% and the topaz mainly distributed in the size range of -0.4+0.074mm, which can be made into abrasive products of different particle sizes after classification. The yield of zinnwaldite concentrate is 16.91% with a grade of Liwhiteness of 75%, which is a glass-ceramic material of good quality. 2O5 0.0346%, Sn 0.04%, Pb 0.10% and Zn 0.33%, the tantalum-niobium concentrate with a yield of 0.00278%,a grade of (TaNb)2O5 53.61% and a recovery of (TaNb)2O5 44.49% is obtained. And the yield of 2O 1.34% and Rb2O 0.40%. The yield of quartz-feldspar concentrate is 30.42% with a grade of K2O+Na2O 8.98% and Fe2O3 0.11% and a natural All of tantalum, niobium, cassiterite, topaz, zinnwaldite, quartz, and feldspar are recovered effectively. Keywords: tantalum-niobium ore, gravity separation for coarse particles, flotation for fine particles, comprehensive recovery

Sep 1, 2012

By Hao Zhang, Dezhou Wei, Qiang Zhao, Caie Zhang, Baoyu Cui, Xuetao Wang

"Nowadays, long periods of relatively low iron ore prices have made the steel industry get the greater pressure. To develop appropriate processing technology based on characteristics of the iron ore, so as to reduce the beneficiation costs, is crucial to the improvement of iron and steel enterprise competition. For a typical low-grade iron ore from northeast China, beneficiation process research was conducted based on the in-depth studies of ore characteristics. Results show that the iron grade of the ore was 31.56%, the content of FeO was 6.59%, the main iron minerals were hematite and magnetite with fine dissemination sizes and partly scattering in gangue; With the grinding fineness of 65% passing 0.074mm, and regrinding fineness of 90% passing 0.074mm, the concentrate with 66.80% iron and recovery of 82.90% was obtained via the combined flowsheet of stage grinding – classification – gravity concentration – low and high intensity magnetic separation – reverse flotation. Ratios of gravity concentration and low intensity magnetic separation were 70.21% and 7.57% respectively in 40.42% of total concentrate yield; The loss of micro-size fractions can be reduced by feeding spiral tailings into magnetic separation and flotation; It’s helpful in reducing the dosage of reagents and beneficiation costs by increasing the throughput of gravity concentration and outputting concentrate of low intensity magnetic separation.INTRODUCTION Iron and steel industries are facing the increasing pressures in the continued falling iron ore prices. In order to improve the competitiveness, it is extremely urgent for them to develop more appropriate separation process for the reduction in iron ore beneficiation cost. As a typical low-grade iron ore, Anshan-type iron ore is one of the most important iron ore resources in China [1-3]. The flowsheet of stage grinding and separation contained the classification of the coarse particles and the fine particles, the gravity concentration, the magnetic separation and the anionic reverse flotation has been widely applied for Anshan-type iron ore. With the appropriate separation progress as well as equipment, satisfactory separation results had been obtained, and mineral particles with different size were recovered separately [4-7]. However, the low recovery of fine mineral particles and the relatively high beneficiation costs still prevented the efficient application of the process [8]. For a Anshan-type low-grade iron ore, a typical process flowsheet, as mentioned earlier, with stage grading, classification of the coarse particles and the fine particles, gravity concentration, magnetic separation, anionic reverse flotation was adopted currently. And the concentrate with 67.10% iron and recovery of 75.50% was obtained and the gravity concentrate accounted for 39% of the total concentrate. However, a large amount of fine liberated iron ore particles were lost in the tailings."

Jan 1, 2018

By T. Saastamoinen, N. Heino

"The Olserum deposit located in Sweden hosts an indicated mineral resource of 4.5 million tonnes over 0.6 % TREO, exhibiting a relatively high proportion of HREE. Beneficiation of a composite drill core sample was studied in the flowsheet of magnetic separation of magnetite followed by REE minerals flotation. Primary testwork was performed to select an effective REE mineral collector and then the parameters of grinding size, collector and depressant dosages, slurry pH and density, conditioning time and temperature, and flotation time were tested for optimization of REE flotation. The studies of process mineralogy showed that the REE-bearing minerals monazite, xenotime and apatite were successfully enriched from the concentrations of 0.6%, 0.31% and 2.6% in the feed to those of 17.0%, 8.9% and 65.0% in the concentrate with the recoveries of 79.0%, 81.3% and 71.0%, respectively. INTRODUCTION The Olserum deposit located in Sweden comprises lower grade placer material with higher grade apatite-magnetite veins and hosts an indicated mineral resource of 4.5 million tonnes at 0.6% TREO, with 34% of that being HREO (EURARE, 2017). The mineralization was studied by Andersson et al. (2018). At early stage, high-temperature REE is characterized by abundant monazite-(Ce) and xenotime-(Y) coexisting with fluorapatite and subordinate amounts of (Y,REE,U,Fe)-(Nb,Ta) oxides. During a subsequent stage, allanite-(Ce) and ferriallanite-(Ce) formed locally, partly resulting from the breakdown of primary monazite-(Ce). Alteration of allanite-(Ce) or ferriallanite-(Ce) to bastnäsite-(Ce) and minor synchysite-(Ce) at lower temperatures represents the latest stage of REE mineral formation. The mineralogy and beneficiation were firstly studied by GTK Mintec in the EURARE project for a composite drill core sample. The Olserum is considerably smaller than the Norra Kärr deposit. However, REE are hosted by xenotime and monazite, both of which have well established processing pathways, and meanwhile, the Olserum has a high contribution of the high value critical REE (dysprosium (Dy), yttrium (Y), neodymium (Nd) and terbium (Tb)), which provide a unique advantage for its exploration (Tasman Metals Ltd., 2013). In this paper, flotation of the REE minerals in the Olserum ore was studied."

Jan 1, 2018

Beneficiation Studies of Dolomitic Rock Phosphate in Pursuit of Zero Waste Technology - A Case Study

Sep 13, 2010

By Mingfei He, Xianyang Qiu, Hongling Wang, Yude Gao, Qingbo Meng, Xiaoping Xu, Hao Bu, Guosheng Wang

"By the “HGMS-gravity separation-Flotation” combined technology, a Ta-Nb-Sn concentrates with the grades of Ta2O5 10.00%, Nb2O5 9.13% and Sn 42.62% at the recovery of 44.73% , 9.13% and 14.62% respectively , a Li concentrate with Li2O 3.11% at the recovery of 51.83% and a feldspar product are obtained. All the value elements are recovered. INTRODUCTION Tantalum and niobium widely used in electronics, atomic energy, aerospace and chemical industries with the advantages of high melting point, good ductility, low vapor pressure, strong corrosion resistance and high thermal conductivity are important strategic resources which occupy a special position in rare metals (Crockettand, 1993; GAO and Zou, 2004; LI and HUANG, 2012). China's tantalum and niobium resources are poor, and most of them are low grade, fine grain size, complex composition, and polymetallic associated with refractory mineral resources (GAO and Qiu,2013; Liang and Li, 2016). The Yifeng Lion Ore containing lithium and other rare metals (tantalum, niobium and tin) is an important lithium polymetallic deposit in China Jangxi province. While extensive previous studies have settled on the recovery of lithium minerals by flotation only for the extremely low grade of Ta, Nb and Sn. The regular gravity concentration is used, and the recovery of tantalum niobium is low. This paper sets out to investigate a combined flowsheet of “high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS),-gravity separation-flotation” to effectively comprehensively recover the Li, Ta, Nb, Sn and the feldspar resources in the Yifeng Lion Ore.ORE PROPERTIES Chemical analysis The run of mine comes from Jiangxi Yifeng Lion ore. The main elements of the ore chemical analysis results shows in Table 1. From Table 1, the grades of lithium and rubidium are relatively high, but the grades of tantalum and niobium are lower than the industrial grade; feldspar with high content of potassium and sodium and low content of iron can be used as high-quality ceramic raw materials."

Jan 1, 2018

By Khosia NK, Ravishankar SA, Sankar TAP

Alumina reduction in Rajhara iron ore slimes essentially involves separation of hematite from gibbsite in relatively coarser fraction and from kaolinite in the finer fraction. Selective dispersion flocculation studies on synthetic mixtures clearly indicated that while it was possible to achieve almost perfect separation of hematite from kaolinite using starch and PAMX (modified polyacrylamide containing hydroxamate functional groups) flocculants, no selectivity was observed in iron oxide-alumina system. A schematic flowsheet suggested on the basis of this work for the beneficiation of Indian ore slimes thus consists of classification in a hydrocyclone, followed by selective dispersion of coarse fraction (underflow) and selective flocculation of the overflow fraction. Starting with a feed assaying 46 per cent Fe and 11.6 per cent A1203, a concentrate assaying 60 per cent Fe and 4.7 per cent A1203 could be produced at an overall iron recovery of 60 per cent using conventional Reagents.

Jan 1, 1993

By D. Krebs, Tero Korhonen, X. Yang, A. Kirpala, N. Heino

At present, over 85% of the world’s rare earth oxides are produced from the bastnäsite ores, found mainly in China. Meanwhile, the ion adsorption ores are the most important sources for heavy rare earth production. As the demand for rare earth materials in the world increases, other forms of rare earth deposits will become new potential resources of rare earth production in the future. In this paper, flotation performance of a steenstrupine ore from the Kvanefjeld deposit for rare earth recovery was studied through laboratory bench testwork. The effects of various factors including grinding size and collector dosage on recovery and selectivity of the selected rare earth elements, La, Ce and Y, were investigated. A rare earth concentrate with the grades of La 2.8 wt%, Ce 5.1 wt% and Y 1.0 wt% at recoveries of 80.5% La, 79.8% Ce and 55.3% Y was obtained in optimum conditions. Further potential to improve the efficiency of REE flotation was discussed. Keywords: Rare earth elements, flotation, steenstrupine, Kvanefjeld deposit

Jan 1, 2020

The present work aimed to verify the possibility of using froth flotation to separate the constitu-ent minerals of an alaskite rock waste having as the main minerals quartz and feldspar. Three stages of tests have been carried through. In the first stage was used an amphoteric collector for flotation, diaminedioleate, at pH 2 and, after analyzing the final products, a very poor selectivity was ob-served. During the second stage of tests, different collectors that are normally used for feldspar flo-tation as amines, sulfonates and soybean oil were employed. Once more, it was not possible to reach reasonably selective results. In the third stage, a salt of etheramine was used for collecting the feldspar and hydrofluoric acid was utilized for controlling the pH. A simulation of three flotation steps (rougher, cleaner and recleaner) permitted to attain a good selectivity in the flotation process. A concentrate with a silica content of 96.6% was obtained. The low concentrate content of alkalis totalizing 0.52% and a feldspar recovery of 96.5% to the tailings, represented by the high content of Na, K, and Al2O3 in the tailings, demonstrated that the concentrate was made up mostly of quartz.

Jan 1, 2014

By W Liu, S Gao, D Wei, B Cui, Z Guan, Y Shen

Beneficiation of low-grade fine-grained hematite ores becomes increasingly important due to rapid depletion of high quality iron ore resources. However, fine particles, especially ultra-fine particles, make efficient beneficiation of these ores more difficult. Therefore, methods to reduce the influence of fine particles must be considered to achieve better beneficiation performance. Analysis and systematical beneficiation tests were carried out on an ultra-fine-grained hematite ore slime from washing a fine grained hematite ore. Ore particles were found to be presented in loose soil. While some of the ore particles were agglomerated, they were very fine and contained up to 76.5 per cent -0.023 mm material. In this paper, using a single magnetic separation flow sheet with sodium silicate (SS) as a dispersing agent, a concentrate containing 65.05 per cent Fe was obtained at an iron recovery of 68.58 per cent from the hematite ore slime of 56.65 per cent Fe. The single magnetic separation flow sheet was simple and reliable, the agent SS was effective in dispersing ultra-fine particles. The results are believed to be applicable to similar hematite ores.CITATION:Wei, D, Guan, Z, Gao, S, Liu, W, Shen, Y and Cui, B, 2013. Beneficiation study of an ultra-fine-grained hematite ore slime, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2013 , pp 495-500 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 12, 2013

Develop new technolgies and techniques which enable recovery of strategic and critical minerals such as cobalt from domestic resources, thereby easing the U.S. dependence upon foreign producers for these valuable commodities. Approach The Bureau of Mines, through research, developed a process which uses mineral beneficiation techniques to recover cobalt-rich products from Missouri lead ores. Before development of this process, cobalt was lost as an impurity in the copper, lead, and zinc concentrates and in the mill tailings because the technology to recover it with minimum impact on present production did not exist.

Jan 1, 1989

By A. T. Sutaone

"Battery grade Mn ore is not found in India except in Dongri-Buzurg Mine, Dist. Bhandara, Maharashtra. The mine located in central India is operated by a premier company viz. Manganese Ore India Ltd., under Central Government Public Sector Undertaking. The company is not selling the product as battery grade material but instead primarily catering to the needs of the iron and steel industry in the country. However, a part of the ore is being used in-house for the production of electrolytic manganese-dioxide in their EMD plant, which is located near the mine.The production of lumpy ore for steel industries generated through multi-stage crushing and screening has resulted in accumulation of about 50,000 tonnes of low grade fines over the year, which contain low of Mn values. Further, the generation of fines is still on going process due to the production of lumpy ores. These fines are stacked in the form of unconsolidated dumps, which create environmental problems like air and water pollution and siltation in the adjoining fields. Besides they are occupying large space, which is scarce in this mining area. The Indian Bureau of Mines under one of its statutory functions has suggested the company to explore the possibility of recovery of additional values under conservation and environmental aspects. Hence the company has sponsored a bulk sample for beneficiation studies in the Modern Mineral Processing Laboratory and Pilot Plant of Indian Bureau of Mines at Nagpur, India. The main manganese minerals present in these mine rejects have been identified as pyrolusite and psilomelane. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of evolving a suitable beneficiation flowsheet to obtain manganese concentrates assaying over 72% MnO2 to be used as raw material for the manufacturing of dry cell batteries."

Jan 1, 2003

By A. T. Sutaone

"In the Dongri Buzurg Manganese Mine of M/s Manganese Ore (India) Ltd., high grade lumpy manganese ore required for iron and steel industries is produced through multi-stage crushing and screening. This has resulted in accumulation of 50,000 tonnes of low grade fines over the years. This production of such fines is still going on. The fines create environmental problems, like air and water pollution and siltation in adjoining fields. Besides containing lot of manganese values, they occupy large space which is very scare in mining area.The Indian Bureau of Mines under one of its statutory functions has suggested the company to explore the possibility of recovery of additional values under conservation and environmental aspects. Hence the company has sponsored a bulk sample for beneficiation studies in the Modern Mineral Processing Laboratory and Pilot Plant of Indian Bureau of Mines at Nagpur, India. The main manganese minerals present in these mine rejects have been identified as pyrolusite and psilomelane. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of evolving a suitable beneficiation flowsheet to obtain manganese concentrates assaying over 72% MnO2 to be used as raw material for the manufacture of dry cell batteries.The sample/material was subjected to characterisation studies in terms of chemical analysis, granulometry and mineralogical compositions. Based on these characterisation studies, the beneficiation process developed comprised of desliming, jigging and low intensity magnetic separation mainly to reject quartz, silicates and jacobsite. The manganese concentrate thus produced assayed 70.2% MnO2 with MnO2 recovery of 78% and weight per cent yield of 63.5. This natural concentrate could be mixed with the electrolytic manganese dioxide produced by the company and this blend can thus be used as a raw material for the manufacture of dry cell batteries by the end users. The paper deals with the details of test work carried out in evolving the process flowsheet."

Jan 1, 2003

By A. Güney, G. Önal

"The tailings of the Bigadiç Colemanite Concentrator at the West of Turkey which contain 18 % B2O3 and 1.57 % SO3 are collected at the tailing dams near the Concentrator. In this research, it was aimed to obtain colemanite concentrates with a minimum content of 40 % B2O3 and a maximum 0.5 % SO3 from the tailings. At the experimental studies, decrepitation methods were systematically applied following attrition scrubbing and sizing. At the end of the tests, the best decrepitation result were described, at 500oC temperature for 15 min. duration, the final concentrate having 57.84 % B2O3, 0.44 % SO3 with 73 % recovery was obtained.Boron ores reserves of Turkey are about 2.5 billion tons and Turkey has the 63% share of the World’s boron reserves. The boron reserves are located at Eskisehir (Kirka), Kutahya (Emet), Balikesir (Bigadic) and Bursa (Kestelek) districts in Western Turkey. In 2002, the total amount of boron production of Turkey was about 1.4 million tons, which is 40 % of the World boron production.Bigadiç colemanite (Ca2B6O11. 5 H2O) ore with a content of 30-31 %B2O3 are concentrated by attrition tumbling and classification process. So the final concentrates with contents of 40 and 42 % B2O3 are obtained at the size fractions of –125+25mm and –25+ 3 mm respectively. The tailings materials with an 18 % B2O3 content are collected at the tailing dams near the Concentrator. In this research, it was aimed to obtain colemanite concentrates with a minimum content of 40 % B2O3 and a maximum 0.5 % SO3 from Bigadic tailings having 18 % B2O3 and 1.57 % SO3.In experimental tests, attrition scrubbing, wet sieving, gravity separation, electrostatic separation, flotation and decrepitation were adopted to the colemanite tailings, and optimum beneficiation conditions were obtained."

Jan 1, 2003