Recovery of pellet feed from tailings dams

• Autor(a) principal: Pinto,Pedro Ferreira
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Delboni Junior,Homero
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: REM - International Engineering Journal
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2448-167X2019000400529
• topic: tailings dam; pellet feed; magnetic concentration; iron ore

Abstract Not long ago, certain iron ore processing plants in Brazil were unable to efficiently recover iron ore fines and, as a result, operated only with high grade iron ore. For this reason, material stored in some iron ore tailings dams have considerable amounts of iron content with a potential to produce pellet feed fines through a concentration process. This study presents the results of magnetic concentration tests carried out on samples from four iron ore tailings dams located in Minas Gerais, named as A, B, C and D. The average iron content is 54% for A dam, 36% for B dam, 49% for C dam, and 58% for D dam. This material had a significant amount of ultra-fine particles, with more than 50% below 0.045mm for all dams, particularly the A and D dams, which present more than 80% of the below 0.045mm on average. Magnetic concentration tests were conducted on bench and pilot scales. The resulting concentrates showed the following average iron content: 66% for dam A, 63% for dam B, and 67% for dams C and D, with a mass recovery of 42% for dam A, 38% for dam B, 75% for dam C, and 63% for dam D. These results confirm the potential for pellet feed production from tailings dams through magnetic concentration.