METHOD FOR UPGRADING IRON ORE UTILIZING MULTIPLE MAGNETIC SEPARATORS

摘要

The present invention relates to upgrading iron ore to decrease the amount of nonferrous materials therein, and to thereby increase the iron content thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to a process utilizing magnetic fields (20, 50, 140) to separate a feed stream into magnetic fractions (30, 60, 150) and nonmagnetic fractions (40, 70, 160). Inventive processes maybe advant ageously used to separate a significant amount of nonmagnetic material such as silica or pyrolusite, from valuable iron oxide in an iron ore or iron ore concentrate. The invention therefore finds advantageous use to provide an improved source of iron oxides for high purity uses such as, for example, direct reduction processes and heavy media coal beneficiation processes.