Ural State Mining University, Ekaterinburg, Russia

A. E. Pelevin, Dr. Eng., Associate Prof., Prof., Dept. of Mineral Processing, e-mail: a-pelevin@yandex.ru

The possibility of improving the quality of iron concentrate by using technology of fine screening in the second and third stages of grinding was investigated. Six enrichment schemes for titanium-magnetite ore were tested in laboratory conditions, differing in the sizes of screens used in the second and third stages of grinding: 0.63; 0.315; 0.16 and 0.1 mm. The use of fine screening in the three-stage grinding and beneficiation scheme in the second and third stages instead of hydrocyclones made it possible to increase the iron content in the concentrate: depending on the size of the screen openings, the iron content in the concentrate increased from 61.21 to 61.94–64.22%. With an increase in the mass fraction of iron in the concentrate, the yield of the concentrate and the extraction of iron into the concentrate decrease. The maximum iron content in the concentrate (64.22%) was achieved using a scheme that provides for the installation of screens with screen opening sizes of 0.63 and 0.1 mm in the second and third stages of grinding. In the second stage of grinding, when using sieves with larger openings, the rock minerals are mainly released, which allows them to be separated into larger tailings using wet magnetic separation. The use of sieves with small openings in the third stage of grinding leads to the releasing of titanomagnetite grains and remaining rock minerals. This enables to obtain a high-quality concentrate in the last stage of wet magnetic separation.

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