Study on Process Mineralogy of Ilmenite in Yunnan Province

Abstract

The process mineralogy of an ilmenite in Yunnan Province was studied. The results showed that the grade of titanium in the ore sample was 5.62%. The main metal minerals in the ore were ilmenite and vanadium ilmenite, which occupied for 61.39% and 11.03% of the total titanium, respectively. The gangue minerals were plagioclase and titanaugite. The contents of SiO2 and Al2O3 were 42.35% and 12.53%, respectively. Most of the coarse ilmenite minerals in the samples were closely associated with vanadium ilmenite, sphene and silicate. Meanwhile, the particle size of the aggregation was mainly concentrated in 0.02～0.30 mm, whereas, 27.58% of titanium occurred in sphene and silicate minerals. Exploratory experimental results of low intensity-high intensity magnetic separation indicated that the strong magnetic minerals could be recovered and plenty of gangue minerals could be removed effectively, resulting in the concentration of ilmenite minerals. Thus, the ore belonged to a low grade refractory ilmenite and it will be significant importance to recover the ilmenite effectively for the exploitation and utilization of this resource.

Keywords

• ilmenite
• vanadium ilmenite
• titanaugite
• dissemination size
• process mineralogy