Abstract
In coming years, global lithium production is expected to increase as the result of widespread electric vehicle adoption. To meet the expected increase in demand, lithium must be sourced from both brine and hard-rock deposits. Heavy liquid separation (HLS) and dense media separation (DMS) tests were conducted on the pegmatites from Hidden Lake, NWT, Canada to demonstrate the potential role of this technology in the concentration of spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) from hard-rock sources. A continuously operated DMS circuit test, conducted on +840 µm material, produced a concentrate grading 6.11% Li2O with ~50% lithium recovery. The circuit rejected 50% of the original mass to tailings, with only 8% lithium losses. Sensitivity analysis showed that minor changes (+/−0.05) in the DMS-specific gravity cut point resulted in significant changes to the mass rejected and to the concentrate grade produced; this may limit the feasibility and operability of the downstream grinding and flotation circuits. The results demonstrate the potential for DMS in the concentration of spodumene from the Hidden Lake pegmatites, and by extension, the potential for DMS in the concentration of spodumene from other hard-rock occurrences.
Highlights
Dense media separation was shown as an effective means to separate spodumene from associated gangue minerals from the Hidden Lake pegmatites in NWT, Canada, despite similarities in mineral-specific gravities
Even for minerals with a relatively low concentration criterion, such as muscovite mica, Heavy liquid separation (HLS) results and subsequent dense media separation (DMS) testing showed the selective recovery of spodumene over other silicate minerals
A two-stage, continuously operated dense media separation test conducted on +840 μm material produced a concentrate grading 6.11% Li2 O with ~50% lithium recovery; 50% of the original mass was rejected to the DMS tailings with only 8% of the lithium
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This paper focuses on technical means of improving efficiency and reducing energy consumption in the concentration lithium-bearing minerals from Canadian hard-rock deposits. Reviews by Gibson et al [21] and, more recently, by Tadesse et al [13] detail the different separation techniques used to concentrate spodumene from associated gangue minerals. The gap in specific gravity between the heavy and the light particles plays an important role in separation efficiency—operation of dense media circuits tends to be more efficient when there is a large difference between the S.G. value of the heavy and light minerals [30]. This paper aims to demonstrate the potential role of DMS in the concentration of spodumene from hard-rock ores, through studying its applicability to the Hidden. We aim toboth demonstrate both the benefits and challengesand of this processing technique and highlight important flowsheet design challenges of this processing technique and highlight important flowsheet design considerations.considerations
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