Quality improvement of garnet and quartz by environment friendly natural surfactant

Abstract

Garnet and quartz find wide applications in the mineral industry. Generally they are associated with surface-coated as well as free clay, silt and ferruginous material making them less acceptable from marketing point of view. The clay associated with garnet makes the water dirtier during water-jet cutting applications and the working environment dusty during sand blasting operations. Presence of traces of iron with quartz is highly objectionable in many of its applications. It was observed that most of the companies wash them using screw classifiers/washers and agitators. In many cases, the above techniques are inadequate to meet the stringent and highly demanding specifications. National Metallurgical Laboratory Madras Centre has developed a process for the removal of surface coatings from garnet and quartz particles. The process involves one or more number of stages of attrition scrubbing with intermediate desliming by hydrocyclones. A natural plant derived surfactant was identified and found to aid the scrubbing and enhance the removal of all contaminants. This surfactant is a natural product which is easily available, non-toxic, environment friendly and biodegradable. The details of the process and conceptual flow-sheets developed for garnet and quartz processing are discussed.