Beneficiation studies on recovery and in-depth characterization of ilmenite from red sediments of badlands topography of Ganjam District, Odisha, India

This paper deals with the recovery of ilmenite mineral from red sediments of badlands topography and suggested flowsheet with material balance. The results of these investigations reveal that the red sediment samples contain 33.2% total heavy mineral, in which ilmenite mineral concentrate is 28.71% (by weight). The ilmenite concentrate recovered from red sediment sample by physical beneficiation process, which included scrubbing, desliming, gravity concentration, magnetic and electrostatic separation, contains 99.41% grade with 97.3% recovery. The ilmenite mineral concentrate recovered from red sediments is also suitable for industrial applications. The characterization studies on ilmenite reveal that the TiO2 percentage is marginally increasing from 46.69% to 47.86% with increasing magnetic intensity from 0.46 to 1.55 T.