Manganese ore beneficiation process

Manganese ore beneficiation process

  Manganese with industrial purity (95-99.8%) is called metallic manganese and is obtained by electrosilicothermy and electrolysis. Manganese carbonate ore containing 19.0-19.4% manganese or carbonate concentrate containing 24-25% manganese is the starting raw material for the production of manganese metal.

Leaching ores or concentrates with sulfuric acid

After the manganese carbonate ore is crushed to 0-20 mm and averaged, it is sent by a belt conveyor to an intermediate bin with an intermittent weighing feeder and ground in a ball mill.

Leaching manganese requires grinding manganese-containing raw materials to a particle size less than 0.1 mm. Wet grinding of raw materials eliminates their drying and does not harm environmental conditions, but is often unacceptable due to the disruption of the water balance in the process. An advanced technological solution is the wet grinding of carbonate ores in spent electrolyte (anolyte) containing sulfuric acid. In this case, the reaction of sulfuric acid with the carbonates and oxides of metals in the ore occurs simultaneously with grinding.

The oxides of silicon, aluminum, manganese (4+), titanium, phosphorus and vanadium contained in carbonate ores are virtually insoluble in weak sulfuric acid solutions (3-30g/l H 2 SO 4 ). These compounds form the basis of the insoluble residue during the acid leaching process at the extreme end of wet grinding of ores.

When wet-ground ore is combined with acid, the conversion of manganese leached into solution during this operation is approximately 80%.

The parameters of the carbonate ore “wet” grinding (leaching) process mode are: supply of ore to the mill – 3-6 tons/hour; supply of anolyte to the mill – 30-40 tons/hour; supply of sulfuric acid to the factory (92.5 %) – 0.2-0.5 tons/hour; the circulation load test of the return pulping plant is 10-12t/h (selected when used in conjunction with a cyclone). After wet grinding, the pulp flows by gravity into a series of six agitators, each with a capacity of 50 m 3 .