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With the development of science and technology, the popularization of electronic equipment and the rise of new energy industries, the consumption and demand for lithium ore have increased, and it is widely used. Therefore, it is known as the "energy metal that promotes world progress."
In production, common lithium ore beneficiation methods mainly include hand separation, flotation, heavy media separation and combined beneficiation.
The manual selection method can be used in the preliminary screening operation of lithium ore. According to the differences in color, appearance and gloss between lithium ore and gangue, waste rocks are manually sorted out to improve the grade of lithium ore in subsequent separation operations.
In lithium ore beneficiation, manual selection method is often used to sort coarse-grained crystallized lithium ore. Generally, the ore particle size is required to be between 10-25mm, the width is no more than 1200mm, and the manual selection belt speed is preferably controlled at 0.2~0.4 m/s.
Flotation is currently the main lithium ore separation method. All lithium ores with industrial value can be enriched by flotation, especially lithium ores that exist in fine-grained disseminated form. Common lithium ore flotation methods include forward flotation and reverse flotation.
The positive flotation method of lithium ore refers to adding strong alkali for flotation after the lithium ore is ground into fine particles (try to avoid over-grinding that may cause mud formation). After desludging with high concentration, strong stirring, and multiple scrubbings in an alkaline medium, oleic acid and its soap salts are added as collectors to directly float out the lithium concentrate, leaving gangue minerals in the tank. No addition is needed in this process. Inhibitors.
The lithium ore reverse flotation method refers to using lime to create an alkaline environment, adding starch, dextrin, etc. to inhibit the floating of lithium ore, and at the same time using cationic collectors to float silicate gangue minerals to the surface of the slurry. The products in the flotation machine tank That is lithium concentrate. If lithium ore contains iron minerals, a foaming agent (such as HF, resinate) can be added to further help remove iron minerals and other impurities.
Generally speaking, the difference in specific gravity between lithium minerals and gangue minerals is not greater than 0.2-0.5g/m3, so it is not suitable to use a shaker or jig for gravity separation. Therefore, heavy media beneficiation method can be used to make lithium ore into heavy mineral products, while gangue minerals are light products.
Mix the washed and deslimed lithium ore with heavy medium (heavy medium includes heavy liquid and heavy suspension, here mainly refers to heavy suspension), and feed it into the heavy medium cyclone at a pressure of 0.05-0.20Mpa for selection. In addition, heavy products and light products can be separated. The heavy product becomes lithium concentrate after demediation through demediation screen, and the light product becomes tailings after demediation through demediation screen. Its main components are quartz, feldspar, biotite and other gangue minerals.
In nature, lithium ores are often associated with complex components, so it is sometimes difficult to obtain qualified lithium concentrate using a single beneficiation method. If necessary, a combined process can be used for separation, such as: flotation-magnetic separation process, flotation-gravity separation -Magnetic separation process, flotation-chemical treatment process, etc.
Taking the flotation-magnetic separation process as an example, the lithium concentrate obtained by the flotation method sometimes contains more iron. In order to obtain low-iron spodumene and improve the product grade of spodumene concentrate, magnetic separation can be used as an auxiliary measure to improve the quality of lithium concentrate. Commonly used magnetic separation equipment include vertical ring pulsating high gradient magnetic separator and wet type Strong magnetic separator.
The above are the four common lithium ore beneficiation methods. It is recommended to conduct lithium ore beneficiation tests before beneficiation and putting into production, and customize scientific beneficiation processes and equipment to avoid waste of resources.
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