Exploratory studies on beneficiation of low-grade Banded Iron ore Formations (BIF) of Karnataka, India

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Iron ore is the basic raw material for production of metallic iron. With depletion of high-grade resources and fine dissemination of valuable minerals in the abundantly available low-grade banded iron ore formations (BIF), liberation is achieved at finer sizes. Hence, it necessitated all beneficiation techniques to be operated at this finer size. However, physical separation techniques have limitations in separation efficiency. A combination of pre-concentration technique such as magnetic separation followed by flotation of magnetic fraction proved to be promising in achieving the respectable grade. A low-grade iron ore sample (BIF) of Karnataka, India was subjected to high intensity magnetic separation followed by flotation for enhancing its grade and recovery. Laboratory scale studies on this ore assaying 39.80 Fe%, 39.62 SiO2% and 1.73 Al2O3% indicated that it could be improved to 63.78 Fe%, 3.10 SiO2% and 1.01 Al2O3% at an overall iron recovery of 24% only. However, attempts are being made to further improve the iron recovery.