Mineralogical and Beneficiation Studies of a Low Grade Iron Ore Sample

Abstract

Investigations were carried out, to establish its amenability for physical beneficiation on a low grade siliceous iron ore sample by magnetic separation. Mineralogical studies, with the help of microscope as well as XRD, SEM–EDS revealed that the sample consists of magnetite, hematite and goethite as major opaque oxide minerals where as quartz and kaolinite form the gangue minerals in the sample. Processes involving combination of classification, dry magnetic separation and wet magnetic separation were carried out to upgrade the low grade siliceous iron ore sample to make it suitable as a marketable product. The sample was first ground and each closed size sieve fractions were subjected to dry magnetic separation and it was observed that limited upgradation is possible. The ground sample was subjected to different finer sizes and separated by wet low intensity magnetic separator. Dry beneficiation studies by Permaroll separator indicated that it is possible to get a product with 60.2 % Fe at 22 % weight recovery. It is possible to get an over all concentrate with 54 % Fe at 32.4 % weight recovery by combination of size reduction followed by LIMS and WHIMS.