Development of Processing Technology for Beneficiation of Lean Iron Ore Fines from GOA

Because of the fast depletion of high grade iron ores and increased industrial demand, low grade iron ores which have hither to been unused, have become a focus of interest in recent years. Thus, the objective of the present study is to beneficiate lean iron ore fines from Goa for utilization in metallurgical plants. The feed sample assayed 44.25% Fe, 29.42% silica and 2.81% alumina. It is apparent from the petrographic observations that the primary ore consisted mostly of magnetite with goethite and quartz; both mineral occurring in granular form and in alternate bands. It was observed from the liberation data that reasonable degree of liberation is achieved only below 210 micron size. Several beneficiation techniques such as scrubbing, jigging, spiralling, hydrocycloning, and magnetic separation are being employed to develop a suitable process flowsheet as a step to enhance the quality of the iron ore and to reduce the gangue content. The developed process flowsheet gives the desired enrichment of the lean iron ore fines to a grade suitable for sinter feed and pellet feed at reasonable yield and discussed in the light of our experimental results.