Manganese ore processing methods

Commonly used manganese ore processing methods can be divided into physical beneficiation, reduction leaching and roasting combined methods. Physical beneficiation methods include washing, gravity separation, magnetic separation and flotation.

Gravity separation

The separation of manganese oxide ore is generally treated by gravity separation. Gravity separation is also often used for various mixed manganese oxide ores with coarse embedded particle sizes and stacked manganese oxide ores. The main processing equipment in the production of manganese ore gravity separation process includes jigs (mainly used for coarse and medium-grained ore separation), shaking tables (mainly used for fine-grained material separation) and heavy medium separation (large particle size range). Compared with other mineral processing production methods, gravity separation has three advantages: low initial investment, low pollution and low industrial production cost. However, gravity separation has strict requirements on the particle size of manganese ore, mud content of the original ore, and ore viscosity. If the mud content of the ore is high, it is generally necessary to wash and desludging it first. As the rich manganese ore resources tend to be exhausted, and the dissemination type of most manganese ore deposits belongs to fine or micro-fine dissemination, the mineral particles in the ore are small and difficult to select, which requires higher and higher grinding fineness. The application of gravity separation is subject to certain restrictions and it is difficult to give full play to its advantages.

Magnetic separation

For a long time, magnetic separation has dominated the beneficiation of manganese ore. Manganese ore is a weakly magnetic mineral with a constant specific magnetic susceptibility, and the magnetism increases with the increase of manganese grade in the ore. The gangue minerals are mostly non-magnetic aluminum silicates. Based on the magnetic differences of different components in the ore, strong magnetic separation can achieve effective enrichment of manganese ore.

The magnetic separation of manganese ore can be divided into dry strong magnetic separation, wet strong magnetic separation, high gradient magnetic separation and superconducting magnetic separation. The magnetic separation process has strict requirements on the magnetic induction intensity and ore particle size of manganese ore. Commonly used magnetic separators are dry strong magnetic separators, wet strong magnetic separators and high gradient strong magnetic separators. Dry strong magnetic separation is suitable for weakly magnetic manganese ore below 3mm. In practice, manganese ore slime less than 0.3mm and other minerals with similar magnetic properties seriously affect the effect of magnetic separation of manganese ore.

Flotation

For fine-grained manganese ore and polymetallic symbiotic manganese ore, flotation can be used. The flotation research of manganese ore focuses on manganese oxide and manganese carbonate minerals, but due to the poor floatability of manganese oxide ore and the difficulty in operation, the flotation of manganese oxide ore is still in the research stage. Manganese carbonate ore is mostly low-grade fine-grained (micro-fine) impregnated refractory ore. It is difficult to effectively separate and enrich manganese carbonate by washing, re-selection and strong magnetic separation. Flotation technology has become an effective method for selecting manganese carbonate ore. The main mineral components of manganese carbonate ore are rhodochrosite and calcium magnesium carbonate. According to the nature of the active ions, conventional manganese carbonate ore collectors include anionic collectors, cationic collectors and non-polar collectors.