Bauxite Beneficiation Modifying Factors: A Case Study

Abstract

The Alumina Rondon project consists of a bauxite mine, beneficiation plant and an alumina refinery, along with its associated logistics. It will be installed in the Rondon do Para municipality in the Para state — northern Brazil. The refinery production capacity is three million tons of alumina per year. For this production, 12 million tons of ROM will be beneficiated, resulting in 8 million tons of washed bauxite. The beneficiation process will occur in a single line plant at 1.500 tons per hour. During the early stages of the project engineering, a characterization study was conducted. Such a study consists in the evaluation and quantification several key aspects of the material needed to proper equipment sizing. To confirm the values of the laboratory scale studies, an industrial scale test was done in the operating bauxite beneficiation plant installed in the Mirai municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais — southeast Brazil. The test was done with two bulk samples obtained from two pilot scale mines. The main aspects evaluated were: product loss, product contamination and effects of residence time in the scrubber.