With the rapid rise of the new energy market, the demand for energy metals has grown rapidly. Lithium, as a “new energy metal in the 21st century”, has been pushed to a new peak, and spodumene has also become the focus of investors.
At present, the applicable spodumene mineral processing methods mainly include hand separation, flotation, dense medium separation, magnetic separation and combined mineral processing.
5 kinds of spodumene mineral processing methods and equipment
Let’s learn about these spodumene mineral processing methods and supporting mining equipment.
Spodumene manual selection method and equipment
Hand selection is a method of preliminary screening and pre-selection of spodumene before it is formally sorted. Generally, it is completed in the crushing operation section, and the crushed ore is sent to the manual selection belt. , Manual selection is carried out to select 10-25mm spodumene, and the belt speed of manual selection is generally controlled at 0.15~0.3m/s.
The manual selection method has low technical requirements, simple operation process, no special site and equipment, and can be carried out only on a simple hand selection belt or a manual operation table, which can preliminarily separate ore from gangue and improve ore quality. selection grade. Manual selection requires high labor intensity, relatively low production efficiency, and a large waste of resources.
The main equipment used in the manual selection method is: crusher, belt conveyor.
Spodumene flotation method and equipment
Flotation is currently the main method used for spodumene mineral processing. Spodumene with a relatively pure surface is not easy to float when it is floated with sodium oleate anion collectors because of the lack of activated cations on the surface; Cationic collectors are very easy to float.
Theoretical research shows that spodumene is similar to the natural buoyancy of common gangue quartz, feldspar and other minerals. When there are high-valent metal cations such as Ca2+, Fe3+, Pb2+, Mg2+ in the slurry, spodumene, quartz, feldspar, etc. Being activated, it is more difficult to separate spodumene and gangue minerals. If the spodumene surface is treated with alkali (NaOH and other strong alkalis) first, and then the spodumene is flotation with a collector, the spodumene can be separated from the gangue minerals such as quartz and feldspar.
At present, the spodumene flotation process can be divided into two methods: forward flotation and reverse flotation.
- Spodumene Positive Flotation： In a strongly alkaline environment, oleic acid and its soap salts are added as collectors, and the sodium silicate formed by the combination of sodium hydroxide and silicate in the pulp can be used as an inhibitor, and can directly float out of spodumene. The gangue minerals are left in the flotation cell.
- Spodumene reverse flotation： Use lime to make an alkaline environment, add dextrin, starch, etc. as inhibitors to prevent spodumene from staying in the tank, and use cationic collectors to reverse flotation quartz, feldspar, mica, etc.
The main application equipment of flotation method is: XCF flotation machine, KYF flotation machine, SF flotation machine and JJF flotation machine, etc.
Spodumene dense medium separation method and equipment
Since spodumene is denser than the main gangue minerals such as symbiotic quartz and feldspar, for spodumene with relatively coarse crystal particle size, resuspension liquid or heavy liquid mineral processing method can be used to make spodumene a heavy mineral product. The gangue minerals are light products, and the effective separation of spodumene and associated gangue minerals is realized.
The main equipment used in the dense medium selection method is: dense medium cyclone, etc.
Spodumene magnetic separation method and equipment
Magnetic separation is mainly used to process minerals containing iron impurities in spodumene. Because of its weak magnetic properties, iron impurities need to be removed by strong magnetic separation to obtain low-iron spodumene concentrate. The magnetic separation method is used to separate spodumene, which is easy to operate, easy to control, and has strong adaptability. When a single magnetic separation cannot effectively remove iron, the combined method can be used to complete the iron removal operation.
The main application equipment of magnetic separation method is: wet strong magnetic separator, high gradient magnetic separator, etc.
Spodumene combined mineral processing method and equipment
The combined mineral processing method is mainly used to separate spodumene with complex associated components, and the single mineral processing method cannot effectively recover lithium concentrate minerals. Therefore, separation can be achieved through combined mineral processing methods, such as flotation-magnetic separation combined process, flotation-gravity separation-magnetic separation combined process, flotation-chemical treatment combined process, etc.
The equipment that can be applied to the combined mineral processing method includes: flotation machines, magnetic separators, jigs, shakers, spiral chutes and leaching tanks, etc.
summary
The above is the introduction of spodumene commonly used mineral processing and mineral processing equipment. In the actual mineral processing, which process and supporting equipment to choose should be tested and analyzed to design a reasonable mineral processing plan and equipment selection to avoid inappropriate mineral processing. Processes and equipment cause waste of resources.