Beneficiation of High-alumina Bearing Iron-ore Slime: A Case Study From Eastern India

A typical high-alumina containing iron ore slime from the eastern Indian sector containing 58.13% Fe, 6.48% SiO2, 4.9% Al2O3, and 5.35% LOI, have been evaluated to find out whether grinding of the slimes will be beneficial or not for upgrading the slime to generate pellet-grade concentrate with >64% Fe. Liberation studies indicated that there is significant interlocking between the minerals above 0.074 mm and hence grinding was adopted to liberate the minerals. It is found that by one-stage grinding, followed by hydrocycloning and magnetic separation by wet high intensity magnetic separator (WHIMS) can produce desired concentrate with >64% Fe with an yield over 60%.