Mineralogical and sink-float studies of Jajarm low-grade bauxite

Jajarm＇s bauxite deposits are mainly diasporic, and they have a low mass ratio of Al2O3/SiO2. It is necessary to increase the run-of-mine mass ratio before feeding the material to the Bayer process. Chemical analysis indicated that the low-grade bauxite sample from Jajarm contained 43.9wt% Al2O3 and 13.35wt% SiO2, resulting in a mass ratio of 3.29. According to mineralogical studies, the presence of aluminosilicate minerals such as kaolinite, illite, and quartz was the main reason for the decrease of the mass ratio. Microscopic observations revealed that, with the size reduction from -1000＋710 to -38 μm, the liberation degree of diaspore increased from 10% to 60%, and that of aluminosilicates increased from 20% to 85%. Heavy liquids with the densities of 2.8, 3.0, 3.2, and 3.4 g/cm3 were used to evaluate the heavy media separation in three sizes, i.e., -3350＋710, -710＋212, and -212＋125 μm. Laboratory studies confirm that the density of 3.2 g/cm3 can produce the concentrates （in sunk fractions） with recoveries of 89.09%, 91.24%, and 84.68% with the Al2O3/SiO2 mass ratios of 5.03, 5.16, and 5.15 for the -3350＋710, -710＋212, and -212＋ 125 μ m sizes, respectively.

Modeling and optimization of low-grade Mn bearing ore leaching using response surface methodology and central composite rotatable design

The application of leaching process to extracting Mn from a low-grade manganese ore was investigated using a software based design of experiments. Four main parameters, i.e. sulfuric acid concentration, oxalic acid concentration, time and temperature were considered in a central composite response surface design. The recoveries of Mn and Fe were selected as response of design. The optimum conditions under which the Mn and Fe recoveries were the highest and the time and temperature were the lowest were determined using statistical analysis and analysis of variance （ANOVA）. The results showed that Mn and Fe recoveries were 93.44% and 15.72% under the optimum condition, respectively. Also, sulfuric acid concentration was the most effective parameter affecting the process. The amounts of sulfuric and oxalic acid were obtained to be 7% and 42.50 g/L in optimum condition and the best time and temperature were 65 min and 63 ℃.

Modeling the effects of ore properties on water recovery in the thickening process

A better understanding of solid-liquid separation would assist in improving the thickening performance and perhaps water recovery as well. The present work aimed to develop an empirical model to study the effects of ore properties on the thickening process based on pilot tests using a column. A hydro-cyclone was used to prepare the required samples for the experiments. The model significantly predicted the experimental underflow solid content using a regression equation at a given solid flux and bed level for different samples, indicating that ore properties are the effective parameters in the thickening process. This work confirned that the water recovery would be increased about 5% by separating the feed into two parts, overflow and underflow, and introducing two different thickeners into them separately. This is duo to the fact that thickeners are limited by permeability and compressibility in operating conditions.

Germanium separation and purification by leaching and precipitation

In this research work, extraction and purification of germanium from zinc leach residues(ZLR) were investigated. The results of ICP, XRF, and atomic adsorption spectroscopy(AAS) tests show that contents of germanium, iron, lead, and zinc within the leaching residue were 105×10^(-6), 3.53%, 10.35%, and 8.8%, respectively. XRD results indicate that the main minerals were in different forms of sulfates(CaSO_4·2H_2O, PbSO_4 and ZnSO_4·6H__2O), silicate(SiO_2), and oxide(Fe_2O_3). Dissolution of leaching filter cake was carried out using 5 parameters and each in 4 levels(acid concentration, temperature, time, liquid-to-solid ratio, and stirring speed) by Taguchi method(L_(16)), and then optimization of the effective parameters by response surface method. Under optimum conditions, zinc and germanium dissolution efficiencies were 88.71% and 8%, respectively. Leaching tests with sulfuric acid(added di-ammonium oxalate monohydrate) and hydrochloric acid(HCl) on the residues obtained from previous-stage sulfuric acid dissolution, yielded germanium and iron recoveries of 83%, 88%, 40%, and 90%, respectively. Thus, leaching experiment with sulfuric acid(added di-ammonium oxalate monohydrate) was superior to that with hydrochloric acid due to high and low extraction amounts of germanium and iron, respectively. Precipitation experiments revealed that germanium purification with tannic acid presented a better result compared to sodium hydroxide and ammonia. Under optimum conditions, contents of germanium and iron in the solution after precipitation were 0.1505% and 14.7% with precipitation yields of 91% and 52%, respectively.

Kinetics of magnetite oxidation under non-isothermal conditions

Oxidation of magnetite concentrates, which occurs during the pellet induration process, must be deeply understood to enable the appropriate design of induration machines. In the present paper, the kinetics of the magnetite oxidation reaction was studied. Primary samples were obtained from the Gol-e-Gohar iron ore deposit. Magnetic separation and flotation decreased the sulfur content in the samples to be approximately 0.1wt%. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to measure mass changes during the oxidation of magnetite and, consequently, the conversion values. The aim of this study was to use isoconversional methods to calculate the kinetic parameters. The Coats-Redfern method was also used to obtain the activation energy. Thermogravimetric analyses were run at three different heating rates. The Coats-Redfern results were too ambiguous for a meaningful interpretation. In the case of the isoconversional method, however, the mean activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the oxidation reaction were obtained as 67.55 kJ and 15.32 × 108 min−1, respectively. Such a large activation energy implies that temperature strongly affects the reaction rate. The oxidation reaction exhibits a true multi-step nature that is predominantly controlled by chemical reaction and diffusion mechanisms.

Comparison of mechanical and column flotation performances on recovery of phosphate slimes in presence of nano-microbubbles

Fine particle flotation has been one of the main problems in many mineral processing plants.The bubble particle collision rate is very low for fine particles,which reduces flotation efficiency.Also,the existence of slimes is,generally,detrimental to the flotation process,affecting the selectivity and the quality of the concentrates.Besides,it causes an increase in reagents consumption.Hence,in most of processing plants,some of these particles are transmitted to the tailing ponds to reduce the effects of these problems and increase the selectivity of the process.Esfordi phosphate plant in Iran loses more than 30%of its capacity as particles with d 80 finer than 30μm.These fine particles with 15.9%P_(2)O_(5)content are transferred to tailing dam.Processing of fine particles is very important for phosphate industry from economic and environmental aspects.This study addressed the processing of fine tailings(slimes)from a phosphate ore concentrator via flotation,despite the traditional view that ultrafine particles do not float.Phosphate flotation performances in the presence and absence of nanobubbles(NBs)in both mechanical and column cells were compared according to the metallurgical results of the process.NBs(generated by hydrodynamic cavitation)have interesting and exclusive properties such as high stability,durability and high surface area per volume,leading to increase of their utilization in mining-metallurgy and environmental areas.The results of this study revealed that,in the absence of NBs,a concentrate containing 26.9%P_(2)O_(5)with a recovery of 29.13%was obtained using mechanical cells in comparison to 31.6%P_(2)O_(5)with a recovery of 32.74%obtained using column flotation.In the presence of NBs,the recoveries of the concentrate of the mechanical and column flotation increased to 40.49%and 41.26%with 28.47%and 30.43%P_(2)O_(5)contents,respectively.Comparative study showed that the column flotation was almost more efficient for processing the phosphate ore in the presence of the NBs,and had thicker froth layer compared to the mechanical flotation.

The Empirical Prediction of Gas Dispersion Parameters on Mechanical Flotation Cells

Gas dispersion properties include bubble size ( ), gas holdup ( ) and bubble surface area flux ( ) and input power ( ) are effective parameters on flotation performance. During the last 10 years, some investigations have been carried out to measure these parameters in mechanical flotation cells. In this research, some models are created to estimate gas dispersion properties and input power by experimental data. Variables of models are impeller peripheral speed ( ), superficial gas velocity ( ) and pulp density ( ) and final form of models are , , and . According to these equations, most effective variables are , and , respectively.

Bonded-particle model calibration using response surface methodology

The bonded-particle model （BPM） is commonly used in numerical analysis of the mechanical behavior of rock samples. Constructing a BPM model requires specification of a number of microstructural parame- ters, including the parallel-bond tensile strength, parallel-bond cohesion strength, parallel-bond effective modulus, parallel-bond friction angle, and parallel-bond stiffness ratio. These parameters cannot be eas- ily measured in the laboratory or directly related to either measurable or physical material parameters. Hence, a calibration process is required to choose the values to be used in simulations of physical systems. In this study, response surface methodology along with the central composite design approach is used to calibrate BPMs. The sensitivities of the microparameters related to the uniaxial compressive strength （UCS） and elasticity modulus （i.e., the macroscopic responses of the models） are thoroughly scrutinized. Numerical simulations are performed to carefully assess the performance of the model. It is found that the elasticity modulus is highly correlated with the parallel-bond effective modulus. In addition, the parallel- bond tensile and cohesion strengths are the two most significant microparameters with a considerable effect on the UCS. The predicted values determined by the proposed approach are in good agreement with the observed values, which verifies the applicability of the proposed method.

The effect of pH, solid content, water chemistry and ore mineralogy on the galvanic interactions between chalcopyrite and pyrite and steel balls

The role of pH, solid content, water chemistry and ore mineralogy on the galvanic interactions between chalcopyrite and pyrite and low alloy steel balls were investigated in the grinding of Sarcheshmeh porphyry copper sulfide ore. All these factors strongly affect the galvanic current between the minerals and the steel during the grinding process. The galvanic current density decreased as the solution pH and percent solids increased. In addition, changing the water in the ball mill from tap to distilled water reduced the galvanic current between the minerals and the balls. Potentiodynamic polarization curves showed that pyrite and chalcopyrite demonstrated typical active-passive-transpassive anodic behavior in the grinding of copper ore. However, the nature of their transitions from the active to the passive state differed. This behavior was not seen in the grinding of pure minerals. In addition, an EDTA extraction technique was employed to quantify the amount of oxidized iron in the mill discharge. The amount of extractable iron was influenced by the same experimental factors and in the same way as the galvanic current.