Abstract

DA CORTE, C.; BERGMANN, C.  and  WOOLLACOTT, L.. Improving the separation efficiency of Southern African haematite from slimes through selective flocculation coupled with magnetic separation. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. [online]. 2019, vol.119, n.11, pp.963-972. ISSN 2411-9717.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/646/2019.

With depleting reserves of high-grade iron ores in South Africa, the local minerals processing industry is increasingly paying attention to fine tailings material as a potential resource for the future. A significant proportion of these tailings consists of slimes, i.e. material finer than 38 μηι. Upgrading of slimes by physical separation techniques is usually constrained by low efficiency at such fine sizes. Selective flocculation has the potential of overcoming these constraints to a degree. This paper reports on a study that investigated that potential by coupling selective flocculation with magnetic separation to improve separation efficiencies. The coupled process achieved an improvement in the grade of the magnetic concentrate from 52.3% to 59.2% Fe at much the same Fe recovery. This constitutes an improvement in separation efficiency from about 40% to 57%. These results were achieved under laboratory conditions, confirming the positive indications found in the literature, and give an indication that similar results may be possible at an industrial scale.

Keywords : selective flocculation; haematite; magnetic separation; SLon-100.

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