Beach Sand Separation
Beach sand mainly comprises rutile, tantalite, magnetite, xenotime, gold ore, iron ore, diamond, quartz sand, coal, and other minerals. The beach sand process is screening the impurities, following separating by gravity separation, magnetic separation, and drying. Finally, use magnetic separation + electric separation to select each required mineral.
Beach Sand Separation Process
Introduction
About Beach Sand
Beach sand refers to the secondary enrichment deposit formed by the accumulation of heavy mineral debris in the coastal zone due to the action of rivers, waves, tides, and ocean currents. It includes the placer deposits in the coastal area and the placer deposits formed on the seashore during the geological period and then below the sea surface due to the rise of the sea level or the decline of the coast. It mainly comprises rutile, tantalite, magnetite, xenotime, gold ore, iron ore, diamond, quartz sand, coal, and other minerals.
Beach sand has vast economic value. It has the advantages of wide distribution, exploration, mining, ore dressing, and convenient smelting. It has been valued by coastal countries and has become the world’s most crucial mining source of monazite, cassiterite, zircon, ilmenite, and rutile.
Mineral Processing
Beach Sand Concentration Separation Methods
The common beneficiation process of beach sand is traditional gravity separation, dry magnetic separation, and electric separation combined.
1. Beach Sand Gravity Separation
The gravity separation method uses the difference in density between rare earth minerals and gangue minerals for separation. Commonly used gravity separation equipment includes the spiral concentrator, shaker table, etc. Gravity separation is mainly used to separate rare earth minerals from gangue minerals, such as quartz and calcite with low density, to achieve pre-enrichment or obtain rare earth concentrate. Gravity separation is widely used in the production of beach sand.
2. Beach Sand Magnetic Separation
In beach sand(placer) beneficiation, weak magnetic separation often separates ilmenite from monazite, and strong magnetic separation separates monazite from zircon, quartz, and other minerals.
3. Beach Sand Electric Separation
Electric separation is a mineral processing method that uses the electrical difference between minerals to separate them in a high-voltage electric field. Electric separation has been widely used in separating rare metal minerals (such as zircon, ilmenite, monazite, and tantalum-niobium ore)
The main minerals recovered from the coarse concentrate of seashore placer are ilmenite, monazite, rutile, and zirconium fluorite. Ilmenite has the strongest magnetic properties among these minerals, followed by monazite. Rutile and zirconium quartz are non-magnetic minerals. However, the conductivity of rutile is much higher than that of zircon, so the combined process of magnetic separation and electric separation can be used.
Beach Sand Beneficiation Plant
Mineral Ores: The alluvial beach sand’s main metal minerals are zirconium, fluorite, rutile, ilmenite, magnetite, and hematite; the main gangue minerals are quartz, feldspar, and mica.
The mine adopts a strong magnetic-electric separation process because the magnetite has been removed during the gravity separation process, and the ilmenite has the strongest magnetism among the remaining minerals. The magnetic separation of magnetite is slightly weaker than that of ilmenite, and it is selected in a fine-sweeping double-disc magnetic separator. The magnetic field of the double-disc strong magnetic separator is higher than that of the single-disc magnetic separator. The rutile and zircon in the tailings are separated by one rough and one sweep electric separation. More zircon includes body and other minerals, and it is often difficult to obtain suitable products, which are discarded as tailings.
JXSC's WCP/HMC Plant
180TPH Heavy Minerals Gravity Separation Plant
Raw material: primarily sand with a very low percentage of heavy minerals, approximately 1% HMC. The breakdown of the HMC is as follows:
- 68% ilmenite
- 15% zircon
- 2.5% rutile
- 1.5% leucoxene
The feed size ranges from 0.3 to 0.03 mm.
Feeding capacity: 180 TPH solid sand
Plant installation condition: WCP plant will be installed on a steel structure floating operation platform, which will be prepared and built by the customer himself.
Customer Requirements
- After processing, the heavy minerals concentrate product grade needs to reach a total of about 50% as per customer request.
- After screening, only need three stages spiral concentrator to get the heavy minerals mixture concentrate as the final product from this WCP plant.
- All the tailings need to be discharged to a tailings dump which is about 200m far way from WCP plant
- The final HMC product (that is discharged from the 3rd stage spiral chute group) needs to be discharged to concentrate stock on a group which is 300m far away from the WCP plant.
Heavy Minerals Dry Separation Plant
This is a zircon rutile monazite concentrate process plant. It is configured with a storage bin, disc feeder, conveyor belt, dryer, electrostatic separator, and high-intensity magnetic separator.
- The forklift feeds the storage bin, and the disc feeder under the bin will feed the hopper of the dryer bin via a conveyor belt.
- The dried material from the dryer will be stored in one pile and then lifted to feed the electrostatic separator. The concentrate is conductive mineral rutile. The tailings will be sent to the second and third electrostatic separator selection, then almost all rutile can be separated.
- The tailings of the third electrostatic separator will be lifted to the hopper or high magnetic separator. The concentrate is the high-magnetic mineral monazite. The tailings are the nonmagnetic mineral zircon.
The capacity for this process plant can be customized as per request, such as 1tph, 3tph, 5tph, etc.
