As BAS, we are rapidly progressing with the commissioning of a plant in West Africa to recover iron from iron mine tailings, having taken on the preliminary, general, and detailed engineering works (Picture 1). These iron mine tailings, accumulated over the past 10 years, contain valuable magnetite mineral with an iron content ranging from 25-29%, and it is guaranteed that iron concentrates with 64% Fe content will be produced in this plant. With the vision of transforming waste into economic value, we recover iron through our magnetic separation solutions, ensuring minimal environmental impact and water consumption.
Picture 1. Plant Aerial View (West Africa)
With the current economic growth rate, most of the rich iron ore mines have been exhausted. So it is essential to find appropriate technologies to efficiently process and exploit the poorer, more complex iron ores and iron ore wastes. Due to the relatively low price of steel, the mineral process used for treating low-quality iron ores must be adequately economical and effective. At present, magnetic separation is a commonly used method to beneficiate and recover iron minerals from various iron resources, as it has the advantages of a large processing capacity, a low operation cost, high applicability, and environmental friendliness (Ore Beneficiation Equipments – BAS®). Commonly, low-intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) is widely preferred to recover magnetite and weakly magnetic iron minerals. Based on the properties of iron ore tailings, we have sufficient reason to believe that the micronized magnetite capture in LIMS is very sensitive to the hydrodynamic parameters, which closely relates to the operating conditions, such as solid weight of pulp, pulp flow, and separation gap design in the LIMS separator.
For the most cost-effective solutions in iron ore waste beneficiation, contact us. The key criteria for project success include accurate mineralogical analysis, particle liberation, particle size distribution, and the correct beneficiation tests applied to the sample. As BAS, we provide a turnkey scope, including the process flow diagram, complete engineering studies, and the correct magnetic separation steps to recover iron minerals from waste.
