Lithium ore processing, lithium ore extraction

The pegmatite lithium deposit is basically a single-phase homogeneous rock mass, composed of albite, microplagioclase, quartz, muscovite and spodumene, and a small amount of minerals include beryl, cassiterite and tantalum-niobium minerals. Spodumene is evenly distributed, and its content can account for 25% of the total rock mass.

01  Factors Affecting Flotation of Lithium Ore

The factors affecting the flotation of pegcrystal lithium ore are mainly divided into two aspects: grinding fineness, mud and floating impurities.

1. Grinding fineness

During the flotation process of pegmatite, the flotation of coarse-grained minerals is more difficult. When the particle size of spodumene is around 0.2mm, its flotation recovery rate is low. Generally, the flotation particle size of pegmatite pyroxene is below 0.15mm. The specific value should vary with the spodumene embedding particle size.

2. Mud and floating impurities

When the surface of pegmatite spodumene ore is polluted by weathering or slime. In production practice, sludge or floating impurities should be set before spodumene mineral flotation.

02   Flotation process of pegmatite lithium ore

At present, the flotation process used in pegmatite spodumene can be divided into three types: flotation process, pre-sludge flotation process and stage grinding flotation process.

1. Direct flotation process

The pegmatite lithium mineral spoloxene is heterogeneous. Some lithium minerals may be lost with the mud. To recover this lithium mineral, a direct flotation process can be used. Anti-flotation to remove sulfide minerals, such as mites, quartz, etc. Spodumene flotation is then carried out to obtain a better spodumene flotation effect.

2. Pre-removal of sludge flotation process

Pegmatite spodumene is easy to produce slime, which affects the flotation of target minerals. It mainly affects the viscosity of the slurry, consumes a large amount of chemicals, pollutes the surface of spodumene mineral particles, and activates gangue minerals. Therefore, for complex spodumene mines with high degree of weathering and severe marlization, the pre-desilting-flotation bipyroxene process can be selected.

3. Stage grinding and flotation process

The pegmatite spodumene cloth is uneven. Lithium minerals with different particle sizes have different buoyancy. Coarse-grained conchiolene with a particle size of 74-38 μm has better buoyancy. Among the gangue minerals, the flotation of fine particles below 38 μm is better. Therefore, the flotation in the graded grinding stage can reduce the over-grinding of gangue minerals and reduce the floatability of gangue minerals.