Abstract
Bolshetagninskoe deposit is one of the most valuable potential Russian niobium resource. It contains challenging pyrochlore ore that in the pre-feasibility study stage has been divided into a few geological–metallurgical units by metallurgical–geological mapping (in general, it is adequate to geometallurgy field). The microcline–pyrochlore ore is the predominant and most challenging metallurgical unit at the deposit. To optimize this unit ore processing flowsheet, broad-view process mineralogy approach was applied. It was shown that preliminary processing of the microcline–pyrochlore ore by radiometric separation stabilizes floatation feed ore grade by decreasing gangue mineral content and content of pyrochlore grain of size less than 10 μm. Comparing pyrochlore grain size and liberation of it in the ore, comminuted by both conventional ball mill and innovative impact centrifuge mill, some grounds of dramatically increased floatation concentrate grade and recovery have been discovered. The fine-grained ore-forming pyrochlore (the mineral average weighted grain size is 61 μm in the radiometric separated ore) has a relatively low liberation degree in the grinding ore (63 %) that, in addition to close association of the mineral with microcline, causes reduced content of Nb2O5 (29.9 %) and high content of SiO2 (22.8 %) in the floatation final product. SiO2 is concentrated by microcline that is definitely needed for an intensive hydrometallurgy processing flowsheet to produce ferroniobium from the product.
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Acknowledgements
The author has taken a part in the Bolshetagninskoe deposit pre-feasibility study as a mineralogist-member of multidisciplinary specialist team and would like to acknowledge colleagues from VIMS and Giredmet institutes for the complex research effort performing. A. V. Temnov, the head of the project, and N. J. Stenin, the project chief-metallurgist, are gratefully thanked for their assistance and discussion, contributed to this paper.
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Azarnova, L. (2015). Bolshetagninskoe Deposit Microcline–Pyrochlore Ore Process Mineralogy. In: Dong, F. (eds) Proceedings of the 11th International Congress for Applied Mineralogy (ICAM). Springer Geochemistry/Mineralogy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13948-7_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13948-7_23
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