Feasibility of iron recovery from iron ore tailings for iron and steel making

Abstract

Beneficiation of iron ore tailings from washing plants in India is essential as a prelude for utilising in sinterfeed. Investigations carried out by hydrocyclone on Bolani iron ore slimes have shown that it is possible to obtain a concentrate containing more than 65% iron, 1% silica, 2.1% Alumina with iron recovery of 74% from a feed containing around 57.9% Fe. The key to such success lies in establishing the correct cut point (d(50)) of the cyclone through the adjustment of both operating and design variables. So the effect of variables such as spigot diameter, pressure, solid concentration, vortex finder diameter and feed rate have been studied in details. The cyclone efficiency is represented by partition curve and is evaluated mathematically from reduced efficiency curve as, Y=100{1-exp(-aX(b))} where X=d/d(50(sic)), Y = Corrected efficiency and a & b are the constants.