BENEFECIATION OF HARUR (TAMILNADU) MOLYBDENITE ORE

摘要

Molybdenum is a versatile metallic element used in a variety of applications, chiefly in alloy additions, in metallic form as pure molybdenum chemicals and catalysts and as molybdenum sulfide lubricant. It is generally used in the form of roasted concentrate, oxide or as ferro-molybdenum. The annual consumption of molybdenum and molybdenum based compounds of our country is about 700 tonnest~1. Most of the requirement is met by imports except for a meager contribution from Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) which is producing molybdenitic concentrate as a byproduct of its uranium mill in Jaduguda, Biha~2. There are also six other units spread over the country which produce ferro-molybdenum based on imported concentrates. Apart from the copper and uranium ores of Singhbhum Shear Zone and lead-zinc ores of Rajasthan, occurrences of molybdenum were also reported from Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh and Dharmapuri area, Tamilnadu. This paper gives detils of the laboratory beneficiation studies carried out on the Harur molybdenite ore of Dharmapuri district, which has a reserve of about 1.84 million tonnes with an average Mo content of 0.098 percent at a cut-off grade of .03 percent Mo. This deposit is located in Harur-Alangayam area of Velampatti South block~3, in the southern end of the Harur - Uttangarai zone. Epidote - hornblende is the dominant rock type and is sporadically exposed with conformable bands of quartzo-felspathic and enclaves of meta-gabbro and metal pyroxenite. Quartz veins with associated mineralisation cut across the formations and form low north-south trending reefs in the central and southern part of the Within the mineralised shear zone molybdenum as mineral molybdenite in the quartz vein as well as in the sheared and sericitised gneiss on either side of it. It occurs as fine flakes, fine granular aggregates and disseminated grains and occupies hair line fractures in the quartz veins.