Iran Removal Studies of Low Grade Diasporic Bauxite by Using Thermochemical Treatment

In this paper, iron removal studies on high iron diasporic bauxite by thermochemical treatment was investigated for the first time. For this purpose, bauxite samples were calcined in temperatures between 600 and 1100°C and then leached with hydrochloric acid. Obtained results revealed, in spit of gradual decrease in both iron and aluminum extraction with rising calcination temperature, iron extraction to aluminum extraction is selective at calcination temperature above 900°C. Leaching studies of calcined sample at 900°C proved that leaching temperature is the most important parameter for iron dissolution in acid and rising leaching temperatures from 20 to 95°C increases iron extraction over 70%. The other optimum parameters are: leaching time120 minutes, acid concentration 50% V/V, grinding size of 210 µm, pulp density of 15% solid by weight. As a result of optimizing parameters, 96.5% of bauxite iron content removed successfully with 88.5% aluminum recovery and solid residue iron content, i.e., the obtained concentrate, decreased from 27.02 to 1.59%.