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Click to add WeChatWith the development of science and technology, the popularization of electronic equipment and the rise of new energy industries, the consumption and demand of lithium ore have increased accordingly, and it is widely used. Therefore, it is hailed as the "energy metal that promotes global progress".
In production, the common lithium ore beneficiation methods mainly include hand selection, flotation, heavy medium selection and combined beneficiation.
The hand selection method can be used for the preliminary screening of lithium ore. According to the differences between lithium ore and gangue in color, appearance and gloss, waste rock is manually picked out to improve the lithium ore grade of subsequent selection operations.
In lithium ore beneficiation, hand selection is often used to sort coarse-grained crystalline lithium ore. Generally, the ore particle size is required to be between 10-25mm, the width is not more than 1200mm, and the hand selection belt speed is preferably controlled at 0.2~0.4 m/s.
Flotation is currently the main method for lithium ore selection. All lithium ores with industrial value can be enriched by flotation, especially lithium ores in the form of fine-grained impregnation. Common lithium ore flotation methods include positive flotation and reverse flotation.
Lithium ore positive flotation method refers to adding strong alkali flotation after the lithium ore is ground (try to avoid over-grinding and mudification). After high concentration, strong stirring, and multiple scrubbing and desludging in an alkaline medium, oleic acid and its soap salts are added as collectors to directly float out the lithium concentrate, leaving the gangue minerals in the tank. No inhibitors are required in this process.
Lithium ore reverse flotation method refers to creating an alkaline environment with the help of lime, adding starch, dextrin, etc. to inhibit the floating of lithium ore, and using cationic collectors to float silicate gangue minerals to the surface of the slurry. The product in the flotation machine tank is lithium concentrate. If the lithium ore contains iron minerals, a frother (such as HF, resin acid salt) can be added to further help remove impurities such as iron minerals.
Generally speaking, the difference in specific gravity between lithium minerals and gangue minerals is no more than 0.2-0.5g/m3, which is not suitable for re-selection with shaking table or jigging machine. Therefore, the heavy medium beneficiation method can be used to make lithium ore a heavy mineral product, while the gangue mineral is a light product.
The lithium ore after washing and desludging is mixed with heavy medium (heavy medium has two types: heavy liquid and heavy suspension, mainly heavy suspension here), and fed into the heavy medium cyclone at a pressure of 0.05-0.20Mpa for separation, and the heavy product and light product can be separated. The heavy product becomes lithium concentrate after being de-screened, and the light product becomes tailings after being de-screened, and its main components are gangue minerals such as quartz, feldspar, and biotite.
In nature, lithium ores often have complex associated components, so a single beneficiation method is sometimes difficult to obtain qualified lithium concentrate. If necessary, a combined process can be used for separation, such as: flotation-magnetic separation process, flotation-gravity separation-magnetic separation process, flotation-chemical treatment process, etc.
Taking the flotation-magnetic separation process as an example, the lithium concentrate obtained by flotation sometimes contains more iron. In order to obtain low-iron spodumene and improve the product grade of spodumene concentrate, magnetic separation can be used as an auxiliary measure to improve the quality of lithium concentrate. Commonly used magnetic separation equipment includes vertical ring pulsating high gradient magnetic separator and wet strong magnetic separator.
The above are the four common lithium ore beneficiation methods. It is recommended to conduct lithium ore beneficiation tests before the selection and production, and customize scientific beneficiation process and equipment based on comprehensive indicators such as ore properties and investment budget to avoid waste of resources.
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