Enhanced separation for ilmenite tailings with a novel HGMS-flotation process

ABSTRACT

China is rich in titanium resources, which accounts for more than 35% of the world. But, until today, the industrial TiO₂ recovery for ilmenite ore is slightly higher than 30% in the current pulsating high-gradient magnetic separation-flotation process (HGMS) so that a large amount of ilmenite value were lost in tailings. A centrifugal HGMS (CHGMS) method was introduced and a novel HGMS-flotation process combining the method was investigated to achieve an enhanced separation for Panzhihua ilmenite tailings in China. The results of this investigation indicate that this new process achieved a superior separation performance to the current one and produced a qualified ilmenite concentrate assaying 46.62% TiO₂ at a significantly enhanced recovery reaching 40.42%. In the new process, the CHGMS separator concentrated ilmenites at high selectivity and produced a high-grade ilmenite concentrate fed to flotation cleaning process, which significantly benefited the enhanced separation for the ilmenite tailings. It was concluded that this new HGMS-flotation process is prospective in improving the separation performance for ilmenite from tailings.

KEYWORDS:

• High-gradient magnetic separation
• flotation
• ilmenite tailings
• recovery

Highlights

1. Centrifugal HGMS concentrates ilmenite minerals with high separation selectivity.

2. The new process with centrifugal HGMS achieves an enhanced separation for ilmenite.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China: [Grant Number 51564028]; The Targeted Financial Transfer Payment Project from Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Department: [Grant Number 2018GZYZF0057]; the Key Program for Applied Basic Research of Yunnan Province: [Grant Number 2016FA051]; and the China Scholarship Council: [Grant Number 201708530003].