Thorium- Uranium Processing with Gravity, Magnetic and Electrical Separation in Zarigan Ore Deposit

Because of low grade of thorium and uranium in the Zarigan mineral deposit, the
pre-concentration operation prior to leaching is necessary. From X-ray diffraction analysis results, it was clear that this ore has large amount of other minerals such as Feldespat, Quartz, Hematite, Titanomagnetite, and rare earths. In this paper the thorium enhancement grade in Zarigan deposit by using gravity, magnetic and electrical separations methods is reported. The output of a Jaw crusher was ground to 85 micron by using ball mill. Then about 95% of SiO2 was separated by using shaking table separation. The heavy concentrate of shaking table was processed by a high intensity magnetic separator and then the magnetic concentrate separated by a low intensity magnetic separator. Finally, the non magnetic concentrate of low magnetic separator was processed with the electrical separation. The grades of thorium and uranium in the non magnetic concentrate of low magnetic separator were increased to 4000 and 5000 ppm, respectively where only 15% of the initial feed (ore) was transferred to this concentrate. Therefore, this resulted in a decrease of acid consumption in the leaching processes and the efficiency enhancement of the process. The pre-treatment circuit of this ore was designed as Jaw crusher/ball mill/shaking table/high-magnetic separator/low-magnetic separator/electrical separator, respectively.