[Siderite Processing] How to Extract Iron from Siderite

Siderite is a carbonate mineral of iron, which is widely distributed and contains 48% iron, without sulfur or phosphorus. It is a valuable iron mineral. When siderite contains less impurities, it can be used for Refined iron.

The beneficiation processes of siderite include gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation, and magnetization roasting-weak magnetic separation.

Siderite Flotation Process

The flotation process is suitable for treating fine-grained disseminated siderite ore, and can also be used for re-selection of coarse concentrate after gravity separation and magnetic separation to improve the grade of iron concentrate.

The siderite flotation method includes two processes: positive flotation and reverse flotation.

Positive flotation includes acid positive flotation and alkaline positive flotation.

Reverse flotation includes anionic collector reverse flotation and cationic collector reverse flotation.

Flotation is an effective method to improve the grade of fine-grained siderite ore.

Siderite Gravity Separation Process

Gravity separation is a widely used beneficiation process for siderite, which is suitable for processing single siderite as well as coarse and medium-grained disseminated siderite.

The more commonly used siderite gravity beneficiation processes are the heavy-media separation and the jigging separation.

Heavy-media separation uses resuspension as the separation medium to separate minerals.

Jig beneficiation is the separation of minerals in the vertical alternating water flow of the jig.

The gravity separation method has large production capacity, low cost and less pollution, but the recovery rate is low.

Siderite Magnetic Separation Process

Siderite is a weak magnetic mineral, which can be separated by strong magnetic separation.

The main equipment of the strong magnetic separation process is the wet strong magnetic separator.

In order to improve the iron concentrate grade and iron recovery rate, weak magnetic separation can be carried out first, and then the siderite after weak magnetic separation is sent to a strong magnetic separator for selection and discarding of tailings.

Siderite Magnetization Roasting-Weak Magnetic Separation Process

After reduction roasting of siderite, the carbon dioxide in the ore is decomposed, and the ore grade is improved.

At the same time, the magnetic properties of iron minerals will also be significantly enhanced, and siderite is transformed into magnetite, while the magnetic properties of gangue minerals have little change. Therefore, high-efficiency weak magnetic separation method can be used to separate and recover iron minerals after roasting.

The commonly used beneficiation methods for siderite are the above four. However, siderite itself is difficult to beneficiate, and it is generally difficult to obtain higher-grade iron concentrates with a single beneficiation process, so multiple beneficiation processes are often used in combination.

However, it is necessary to decide which kinds of processes can get the greatest benefit through processing test.