Beneficiation of Nb and Ti carbides from pyrochlore ore via carbothermic reduction followed by magnetic separation

Abstract

Beneficiation of niobium and titanium carbides from pyrochlore ore via carbothermic reduction followed by magnetic separation was investigated in this work. During carbothermic reduction, Nb, Ti and Fe oxides within the pyrochlore ore could be reduced into NbC, TiC and metallic iron, respectively. The carbides gather around and dissolve into the metallic iron grains, enabling the enrichment of niobium and titanium carbides by magnetic separation with the carrier of metallic iron. Under the optimal conditions: coke dosage of 6%, reducing temperature of 1400 °C and time of 120 min, a magnetic concentrate with 4.18% Nb, 4.60% Ti and 70.57% Fe can be obtained followed by wet magnetic separation. The corresponding recoveries of Nb, Ti and Fe were 70.5%, 59.8% and 92.6%, respectively.