OJSC «Uralmekhanobr», Yekaterinburg, Russia:

G. I. Gazaleevа, Head of Department, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, gazaleeva_gi@umbr.ru
T. A. Buzunova, Senior Researcher, Candidate of Engineering Sciences
I. A. Vlasov, Senior Researcher

The article reports the mineralogical and production research results on the anomalous zone ore of the Kovdor deposit. According to the research, the ore zone has a complex geological structure, and is composed of basic minerals (magnetite, apatite and baddelaite) and accessory tantalum–niobium minerals of hatchettolite and zirkelite. For magnetic separation tailings, the efficient modes of ball milling and the required level of dissociation of useful minerals for further treatment by gravity, magnetic and flotation separation are determined: particle size of 0.16 +0.044 mm for magnetite, apatite and baddelaite as well as 0.044+0 mm for hattchetolittes. Furthermore, the research finds that medium-size apatite particles of 0.1–0.071 mm possess the best floatability. The developed technology provides gentle dissociation of accretions with first-stage production of iron concentrate, as in the current process flow chart, and later-stage manufacturing of apatite, baddeleite and tantalum–niobium concentrates from tailings of magnetic separation. Sample processing only produces iron concentrate with iron content of 67.1 % and phosphorus pentoxide of 0.14 % at iron recovery of 92.3 %. Production of quality apatite concentrates from highly carbonaceous ore is very difficult; for this reason, phosphorus pentoxide recovery is not high, 20.06 % in average, as against initial recovery of 47.5 %. Hattchetolittes concentrate in the magnetic fraction, at the mass fractions of 0.2 % of Nb₂O₅ and 0.041 % of Ta₂O₅. The recovery makes, respectively, 21 and 22 %. The particle size of the hattchetolitte products was less than 0.04 mm. The analyses of material constitution and processing properties reveal that hattchetolitte and zirkelite dissociate at the size of 10–30 μm, possess super high sludging and feature super fine intergrowth. The research points at problematic recovery of Ta and Nb rare earths due to natural morphology and processing featursz of ore in the anomalous zone of the Kovdor deposit.

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