Beneficiation studies on reject dump magnesite sample from Talur Magnesite Mines, Karnataka

Abstract

Flotation studies on reject dump magnesite sample were conducted using oleic acid emulsion as collector and sodium silicate as depressant. The representative sample assayed SiO, 6.1 %, MgO 41.85%, CaO 2.25% and Fe2O3 1.2%. Mineralogical studies showed that gangue minerals were mostly quartz liberated at grind below 208µ except for serpentine which needs a still finer grind of 107µ Flotation studies in batch scale (I kg batch) indicated that a concentrate analysing 2.02% silica with a yield of 58.5% could he obtained by roughing followed by one cleaning while by adding two more cleaning stages, a concentrate with a silica content of 0.9% with a yield of 32.0% could be produced