Evaluation of the potential of recovering various valuable elements from a vanadiferous titanomagnetite tailing based on chemical and process mineralogical characterization.

Abstract

In order to evaluate the potential of recovering various valuable elements from vanadiferous titanomagnetite tailing (VTMT), the chemical and process mineralogical characterization of VTMT were investigated in this study by various analytical techniques such as XRF, XRD, optical microscopy, SEM, EDS, and AMICS. It was found that VTMT is a coarser powder in general; about 50% of the particle size is greater than 54.30μm. The total iron content of the VTMT was 22.40 wt.%, and its TiO2 grade is 14.45 wt.%, even higher than those found in natural ilmenite ores. The majority of iron and titanium were located in ilmenite and hematite; 62.84% of hematite and 90.27% of ilmenite were present in monomeric form. However, there is still a portion of ilmenite and hematite embedded in gangue such as anorthite, diopside, and serpentite. For the recovery of valuable fractions such as Fe and TiO2 from VTMT, a treatment process including ball milling-high-intensity magnetic separation-one roughing and three refining flotation was proposed. Finally, a concentrate with TiO2 grade of 47.31% and total Fe (TFe) grade of 35.44% was produced; TiO2 and TFe had recovery rates of 57.71% and 28.23%, respectively. The recovered product is adequate as a raw material for the production of rutile. This study provides a reference and a new research direction for the recycling and comprehensive utilization of VTMT.