Introduction to the tin ore dressing process

Tin ore dressing usually adopts gravity separation, which is determined by the characteristic that tin ore has a higher density than the associated minerals. However, tin ore is often associated with iron oxide minerals such as magnetite and hematite, so it is impossible to completely separate the ore by gravity separation alone. Therefore, magnetic separation and flotation are also used in tin ore dressing methods.

Tin ore dressing process

1. Washing and desludging. This step is for raw materials with high mud content and strong cementation. Such raw materials must be washed and desludged before crushing. Washing uses a trough washer, and desludging uses a classifier and a hydrocyclone.

2. Crushing and screening. Use a jaw crusher and a hammer crusher to crush the raw ore into ores with a particle size of less than 20mm. Then use a vibrating screen to divide it into two particle sizes of 0-4mm and 4-20mm.

3. Pre-selection stage: After crushing and screening, the pre-selection stage must be entered. First, the 4-20mm ore must be pre-selected using a heavy medium cyclone, and then enter a grinding stage. After grinding, the ore is further selected using a jig and a vibrating screen. The screen is controlled at 2mm, and the -2mm is then selected using a shaking table to select the concentrate, and the +2mm becomes the tailings.

4. Flotation: The flotation stage is divided into two steps: mixed flotation and separation flotation. First, we must mix the concentrate selected by the jig and the shaking table for flotation, and the selected concentrate is then subjected to lead and zinc separation flotation, and the tailings are selected by the shaking table to select qualified tin concentrate.

5. Gravity selection: The ore mud enters the medium 300mm cyclone, and the overflow is then removed by the medium 125mm and medium 75mm hydrocyclone groups to remove fine mud. The sediment is concentrated, flotated and desulfurized before cassiterite flotation.