Process Mineralogy and Concentrating of Hematite-Limonite Ore in Southern China

The grade of the crude hematite-limonite ore is 39.79%. The main metallic minerals are hematite-limonite. Hematite has disseminated structure distributed in the gangue. Limonite was inlayed as stars in hematite. Due to their fine dissemination and close association with gangue minerals, the hematite and limonite particles are hard to be fully liberated, bringing difficulty in their separation. Staged grinding-separation process consisting of high intensity magnetic separation and reverse floatation wag adopted in the beneficiation test on the regionally representative hematite—limonite ore resource. At a grind of 70.0% -200 mesh for the primary grinding and 98.7% -200 mesh for the secondary grinding, the final iron concentrate grade 58.26% and having an iron recovery of 8.33% can be achieved after reverse flotation process test on magnetic concentrate.