Iron compounds such as magnetite, goethite, and hematite are commonly found as minor contaminants in some industrial minerals such as talc. Iron compounds are often entrained in froth flotation concentrates and require removal prior to shipment. A Knelson Continuous Variable Discharge concentrator (CVD) installed within a flotation circuit can economically remove the iron contaminants. A Knelson CVD in a flotation circuit can improve plant throughput and reduce the need for downstream magnetic separation.
Benefits
The CVD can usually be incorporated into existing flotation circuits with minimal installation costs
Increased tonnages can be treated in an existing flotation circuit with low additional capital cost
The CVD can decrease the size and/or number of magnetic separators required to remove iron compounds to meet product specifications
The CVD can be configured to not only remove fine liberated iron compounds, but can often recover locked iron in coarse industrial mineral particles, which can be further treated to improve overall plant recovery
Application
The CVD is typically incorporated into the flotation circuit treating flotation concentrates. Concentrate is fed to the CVD, producing light and heavy product streams. The light stream from the CVD has most of the iron compounds removed, and reports to final cleaning steps such as magnetic separation. The iron "reject" stream from the CVD is sent to the scavenger circuit for further processing. This stream has both fine liberated iron particles and coarse talc particles with locked iron. The scavenger circuit rejects the fine iron particles to tails, while the coarse, unliberated talc particles are reground and sent back to primary flotation.
A typical flowsheet for iron removal in a talc circuit is shown below using the Knelson CVD concentrator. The CVD iron reject stream reports to flotation scavenger circuit for removal of fine iron compounds, with coarse talc containing locked iron being re-ground.
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"Worked like a hot damn in some of the placer operations we have seen through the years."
- Michael Pickens, President - Geoex Limited, Canada
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