Yuxi Vanadium-titanium Magnetite Beneficiation Pilot Study

Vanadium titanomagnetite is important mineral resoures.With the advancement of science and technology, greater attention has been paid to the development and utilization of the vanadium titanomagnetite increasingly. The exploitation and utilization of vanadium titanomagnetite will provide a strong foundation for the economic construction and both domestic and overseas interrelated industries, because of the useful components with high economic value and social value in vanadium titanomagnetite, such as vanadium, titanium, cobalt, scandium and gallium. With less and less rich mineral resources, the research on low grade vanadium titanomagnetite processing is becoming more and more important.The vanadium titanomagnetite ore deposit with complex composition and large storage locates in Yuxi city, Yunnan province, with a grade of TFe 15.78%, V2O50.15%, TiO27.45%. The metallic minerals are composed mostly of titanomagnetite, followed by ilmenite, martite and limonite. Metal sulfide content is low, including pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite and so on. Gangue minerals are comprised primarily of plagioclase, followed by titanaugite, montmorillonite, sericite, chlorite, apatite and so on.The stage grinding-classification separation flowsheet to recover titanomagnetite is recommended. After tests on grinding condition, magnetic density and process structure, best process conditions are obtained. It can obtain the iron concentrate with grade of Fe 57.92%, V2O50.66%, recovery of Fe 52.85%, V2O563.35% by open-circuit separation on condition that primary grinding fineness and secondary grinding fineness are 80%-74μm and 95%-74μm respectively, and magnetic density are 2000 Oe and 2900 Oe respectively. The test recommends high intensity magnetic separation-flotation flowsheet to recover ilmenite. After magnetic concentrate regrinding test, collector types and dosages test in flotation, pH adjustment dosages test, depressant dosage test and process structure test, it can get ilmenite concentrate with a grade of TiO246.25%, a operation recovery of 58.28% through one rouger-two scanvenger-three cleaners open-circuit flotation on condition that regrinding fineness is 90%-45μm, pH=4-5, mixed collector dosage (sodium oleate:styryl phosphonic acid=3:1) of 800 g/t, sodium silicate dosage of 300 g/t, carboxymethyl cellulose dosage of 60 g/t and terpenic oil dosage of 40 g/t.It ultimately adopts the flowsheet of stage grinding-classification-low intensity magnetic separation-high intensity magnetic separation-regrinding-flotation, whose closed-circuit test obtains iron ore concentrate with grade of Fe 51.92%, V2O50.66%, recovery of Fe 52.85%, V2O563.35%, and ilmenite concentrate with a grade of TiO2 46.18%, a recovery of TiO230.97%. Althrough titanomagnetite mostly have been recovered, the ilmenite recovery is low. There are two reasons accounting for low ilmenite recovery. On the one hand, it mostly due to the 27.54% of titanium in the titanomagnetite, which enter into low intensity magnetic concentrate along with iron ores. On the other hand, sieve analysis finds that the loss of TiO2 in high intensity magnetic separation tailings are mostly in-37μm particlesize. This most probable cause is that this part of TiO2 particle size is too fine, whereafter, the TiO2 magnetism is low, which result in entering into high intensity magnetic concentrate difficultly. Therefore, how to recover fine particle size ores efficiently is still a future direction for further research.