Ilmenite ore, as one of the major titanium minerals, is of great value due to its wide range of applications in multiple industrial fields. In order to effectively extract ilmenite from the ore, a variety of beneficiation methods can be used, including gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation and electroseparation, as well as their combined application.
Since the specific gravity of titanium minerals is greater than that of non-metallic gangue minerals, gravity separation can be used for the separation of ilmenite ore. This method is suitable for coarse-grained and fine-grained aggregate-dyed ilmenite. The process of the general gravity separation method is to remove gangue minerals and desludge through gravity separation equipment such as jigs, spiral chutes, and shakers after coarse and medium crushing. It has the characteristics of low production cost and less environmental pollution.
Ilmenite is a weakly magnetic mineral. At the same volume, the volume magnetization of ilmenite is much greater than that of gangue minerals. Through strong magnetic separation, ilmenite and gangue minerals can be effectively separated to achieve enrichment purposes. It is commonly used In the selection process, it has good effects on sorting both coarse-grained and fine-grained ilmenite. Depending on the type of ilmenite ore, the magnetic field strength selected during magnetic separation is also different.
Ilmenite mostly exists in the deposit in the form of complex solid solution, which easily produces ilmenite flakes with a higher magnetization coefficient. The magnetization difference with the gangue increases, making it easy to carry out magnetic separation. Some ilmenite sand ores contain a large amount of impurities and sludge. After primary grinding, weak magnetic separation can be used to separate the iron ore, and then medium-strong magnetic separation can be used to separate the titanium ore to improve the quality of the ore.
Flotation plays a key role in the extraction process of ilmenite ore. It includes several different methods such as conventional flotation, flocculation flotation, agglomeration flotation and carrier flotation. The conventional flotation method mainly improves the collection performance by adding oleic acid and its soaps, oxidized paraffin soap, tar oil and other collectors, and by adjusting the temperature, increasing the oxygen content or adding emulsifiers, etc., and is suitable for primary titanium Ore selection and fine-grained ilmenite separation.
The flocculation and flotation method is divided into selective flocculation and flotation and hydrophobic flocculation and flotation. The former selectively flocculates fine-grained ilmenite by adding flocculants such as polyacrylamide, while the latter uses the hydrophobic interaction between mineral particles. Making the agglomerates float up has certain advantages in the recovery of fine-grained ilmenite.
The agglomeration flotation method uses the adsorption effect of the collector on the surface of ilmenite to make the ore particles hydrophobic, and uses the capillary attraction of the bridge liquid to make the ore particles agglomerate and float upward as a whole, which requires certain stirring intensity. The carrier flotation method uses floatable minerals as carriers to load fine-grained ilmenite to achieve floating separation.
In order to improve the flotation effect, inhibitors such as water glass, sodium hexametaphosphate, acidified water glass, etc. are usually added to suppress the influence of gangue minerals and optimize flotation indicators. The flotation process is usually carried out at a pH value of 4.0 to 6.0 to ensure optimal flotation results.
Ilmenite electro-separation method
The electro-separation method is mainly a method for processing ilmenite ore containing non-conductive impurities such as titanium pyroxene, and is a checkpoint operation for ilmenite concentrate.
The processing method of ilmenite is determined by its own properties. When the composition of ilmenite is complex, it is difficult to achieve good separation results with one beneficiation method. Therefore, a combined process is required. Common ilmenite The ore combined process includes magnetic separation-flotation method, magnetic separation-gravity separation method, gravity separation-flotation method, gravity separation-magnetic separation-flotation-electric separation method, etc.
Since titanium ore has a higher density than gangue minerals, gravity separation is often used for pretreatment or roughing. Although its production cost is low, its operation is simple, and its indicators are high, it has the problems of large water consumption and poor fine particle sorting.
Magnetic separation is widely used in the selection of titanium-containing minerals, achieving separation of gangue with small density differences, but it is difficult to sort fine particles such as 0.038 mm.
The electric separation method is suitable for titanium mineral selection, especially when the coarse concentrate contains non-conductive minerals such as ilmenite and rutile as well as zircon, electric separation can be used for separation. Its advantage lies in its good selection performance, especially the removal of titanium pyroxene that is difficult to separate. Its disadvantages include the need for dry ore feeding and small processing capacity.
The flotation method is used for the separation of primary titanium-containing ores, especially for the separation of fine-grained titanium-containing ores, and is sometimes used in the selection of coarse concentrates. Although targeted and efficient, titanium pyroxene has a serious impact on the recovery of ilmenite, and conventional flotation, flocculation flotation, and agglomeration flotation cannot effectively separate fine-grade titanium pyroxene. The combined method gives full play to the advantages of each of the above titanium-selected methods.
When choosing a beneficiation method for ilmenite ore, in view of the complexity of the mineral properties of ilmenite and the differences in mineral properties of different deposits, it is necessary to clarify the characteristics of the ore through beneficiation experiments and determine the most appropriate beneficiation process and equipment to ensure the ideal mineral processing effect.
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