Iron Recovery from the Tailings of the Balestan Iron Ore Plant

The reprocessing tailings of iron ore processing plants is important from economic (as a secondary source of iron) and environmental points of view. The aim of the present study is to determine the appropriate method for recovery iron from the tailings of Balestan iron ore processing plant (located in the northwest of Iran). For this purpose, after taking samples from the tail piles of this plant, a representative sample was selected, and chemical, mineralogical, size distribution, and bond’s work index analyses were performed on it. The total iron grade in the tailings was measured to be about 10%, of which 8.5% was identified as magnetite mineral (with a degree of liberation less than 40%). The d80 value of the sample was 7 mm, and the bond index was measured as 11.84 (kWh/ton). To determine the appropriate method for iron recovery, pre-processing with magnetic drum, grinding, and Davis tube tests were performed. With the magnetic pre-processing of tailings with a particle size of 0-10 mm, under a field of 2000 G and in a dry method, about 80% of the load entering the drum with a total iron grade of 5% was transferred to the tailings. 20% of the input load with an iron grade of approximately 24% was recovered to the concentrate. In order to remove the gangue minerals and enrich the pre-processed concentrate, stepwise grinding and separation had the best results. Comminution was done in two stages to produce products with smaller dimensions of 250 and 45 microns, respectively. Magnetic separation was also done in three stages with 3000 G, and two stages of separation with 1000 G, which finally resulted in a concentrate with a total iron grade of more than 66% and iron recovery of 44.88%.