6 kinds of beneficiation processes commonly used in lithium ore

Different lithium ores have different properties, and the content of lithium oxide in the minerals is low, and the mineral composition is different, so the beneficiation methods of lithium ores are also different. At present, common lithium ore beneficiation processes mainly include flotation, magnetic separation, dense medium beneficiation and combined beneficiation. The lithium ore beneficiation process flow chart designed by Xinhai Mining is mainly suitable for processing spodumene and lepidolite lithium minerals.

The six commonly used lithium ore beneficiation processes include:

1. Positive flotation process

Lithium ore is ground and added to strong alkali flotation. After high concentration in alkaline medium, strong stirring, and repeated scrubbing to remove sludge, oleic acid and soap salt are added as collectors to directly float lithium concentrate. The lower gangue minerals are in the tank.

2. Reverse flotation process

Lime is mainly used to create an alkaline environment, and then starch, dextrin, etc. are added to inhibit the lithium ore from floating up, and at the same time, the cationic collector is used to make the silicate gangue minerals float to the surface of the pulp for discharge. If iron-containing minerals, foaming agents such as HF and resinate can be added to remove iron.

3. Magnetic separation process

It is mostly used to treat minerals containing iron impurities in lithium ore. These minerals have weak magnetic properties and need to be removed by strong magnetic separation to obtain low-iron spodumene concentrate.

4. Dense media beneficiation process

For spodumene with relatively coarse crystal particle size, the heavy media beneficiation method can be used to make lithium ore into heavy mineral products. Generally, the lithium ore after washing and desliming is mixed with dense medium (heavy medium has two types of heavy liquid and heavy suspension, here mainly refers to heavy suspension), and is fed into the heavy medium cyclone at a pressure of 0.05-0.20Mpa After sorting, the lithium concentrate can be selected.

5. Flotation-magnetic separation combined process

The process is to use oxidized paraffin soap and naphthenic acid soap as the combined collector, NaOH as the pH regulator, and adopt a rough and fine flotation process in the alkaline pulp to obtain the spodumene concentrate, and then Iron removal by strong magnetic separation to obtain spodumene concentrate with low iron content.

6. Combined process of flotation-magnetic separation-gravity separation

After the milled material is slurried, it enters the gravity separation stage (removal of tantalum, niobium and other products). After the gravity separation tailings are concentrated and deslimed by the thickener, oleic acid and oxidized paraffin soap are added for sizing. Spodumene concentrate is obtained by conditional flotation, and further purified by strong magnetic separation to remove iron impurities.