Processing of water soluble mineral resources

摘要

Water-soluble minerals such as potash, potassium-magnesium and carnallite ores, and salts from water bodies such as the Dead Sea in Israel and Quarhan Lake in China, are the basic materials for the manufacture of fertilisers, magnesium oxide, soda, potassium hydroxide and other chemicals. Worldwide, some 180-190m. tonnes of water soluble minerals are treated per year. The development and commercial use of flotational processing of potash and potash-magnesium ores have created large tonnage, low energy-intensive potash fertiliser industries without using hot leaching and vacuum crystallisation.The Institute of Halurgy is Russia's leader in the processing of water-soluble minerals. This paper analyses the technologies for flotational processing of potassium and potash-magnesium ores of Russia, Belarus, western Europe, and Canada, and the solar salts of salt lakes. The influence of raw material chemistry on manufacturing performance and product quality is demonstrated.