Abstract:
The garnets extracted from the coastal region belong to the almandine variety and are available in sizes exceeding + 80#. The size fraction below 80# is discarded at mineral separation plants, resulting in the accumulation of garnet piles, which contribute to air pollution affecting workers. Consequently, any initiative to utilize these finer garnets aligns with transforming waste into wealth. This study focuses on recovering and enhancing rejected-size garnets from the Ramchandi coast in Odisha, India. The extraction process from the beach sand employs wet and dry methods, followed by screening. The findings indicate that the optimal product achieved contains 99.1% garnet, with a recovery rate of 92.8% and a yield of 38.2%, utilizing a combination of spiral concentrators, wet high-intensity magnetic separators, and high-tension separators. The recovered garnets, being of the almandine variety, have a broad spectrum of industrial applications, including the extraction of rare earth elements and the production of industrial precipitated silica. This study aims to develop a process flow sheet for the value addition of waste-sized garnets, targeting the concurrent recovery of rare earth elements such as rare earth hydroxide concentrate, hydrated alumina, precipitated silica, and calcium carbonate. This process seeks to minimize the presence of iron, alumina, and other undesirable impurities in the fine-sized waste garnet, which can be utilized in various commercial applications, such as reinforcing agents in rubber manufacturing, cosmetics, toothpaste, and anti-caking agents in the food industry.