Magnetic separation studies for a low grade siliceous iron ore sample

Investigations were carried out, on a low grade siliceous iron ore sample by magnetic separation, to establish its amenability for physical beneficiation. Mineralogical studies revealed that the sample consists of magnetite, hematite and goethite as major opaque oxide minerals where as silicates as well as carbonates form the gangue minerals in the sample. Processes involving combination of classification, dry magnetic separation and wet magnetic separation were carried out to upgrade the low grade siliceous iron ore sample to make it suitable as a marketable product. The sample was first ground and each closed size sieve fractions were subjected to dry magnetic separation and it was observed that limited upgradation is possible. The ground sample was subjected to different finer sizes and separated by wet low intensity magnetic separator. It was possible to obtain a magnetic concentrate of 67% Fe by recovering 90% of iron values at below 200 μm size.