A wet belt permanent high gradient magnetic separator for purification of non-metallic ores

摘要

A wet belt permanent high gradient magnetic separator (referred here as WBHGMS) was developed on the principle of HGMS in an inclined slurry flow of several centimeters thick. In this investigation, a pilot-scale WBHGMS separator was introduced and used to purify a quartz ore, to study the effect of key variables such as belt rotation speed and belt inclination angle on the separation performance. The results of investigation indicate that changes in the rotation speed and inclination angle as well as the rinsing water consumption have significant influences on the performance, and an increase in these variables increases the Fe2O3 grade but decreases the iron removal rate of non-magnetic product. When they are respectively optimized at 5 r/min, 5 degrees and 8.3 L/min, it produced a non-magnetic product assaying 0.0166% Fe2O3 at an iron removal rate of 43.97% (nearly 95% for magnetic minerals) from the ore assaying 0.0359% Fe2O3; such a separation performance correlates well with the industrial operation of full-scale WBHGMS separators in purifying the ore. This pilot-scale separator also produced a non-magnetic product assaying 0.041% Fe2O3 at an iron removal rate of 58.70% (nearly 96% for magnetic minerals) from a feldspar ore assaying 0.068% Fe2O3. It was concluded that this HGMS separator has provided an effective method for the removal of magnetic impurities from non-metallic ores. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.