Dry beneficiation of bentonite using dynamic separator

Abstract

Beneficiated bentonites, which contain predominantly smectite minerals, have many uses, such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and advanced composite materials. The beneficiation of bentonites using dry processes is essential to being economical, fast, and accessible. This study developed a new method for the dry beneficiation of bentonites, and for this, a laboratory-scale dynamic separator was used as beneficiation equipment. A stirred media mill was used for grinding raw bentonite before beneficiation studies. The effects of the airflow rate and rotor rotation speed, which are the operating parameters of the separator, on the separation and beneficiation efficiency according to the particle size were investigated in detail. Quartz, opal, muscovite, and feldspars were removed from the raw bentonite sample, while small amounts of calcite and clinoptilolite minerals remained. It was determined that the amount of concentrated product obtained in this way, which had the d90 value of 23.6 μm, was 19.4% compared to the amount of product fed.