5 Methods for Barite Beneficiation Process

Barite is a common mineral of barium, and its composition is barium sulfate. Its chemical composition is BaO 65.7%, SO3 34.3%, and it is an important industrial mineral raw material for the preparation of barium and barium compounds. Barite deposits are mainly divided into four types: sedimentary deposits, volcanic sedimentary deposits, hydrothermal deposits and residual deposits. According to the ore type, raw ore properties, mine scale and use, the currently commonly used barite beneficiation methods mainly include manual separation, gravity separation, flotation, magnetic separation and combined process.

Generally, residual barite ore is easy to separate, and gravity separation method can be preferred. Sedimentary barite ore and hydrothermal barite ore associated with sulfide ore, fluorite, etc. need to be separated by flotation method in addition to gravity separation. The following will explain each barite beneficiation process and the barite beneficiation equipment used in each process.

After the raw ore is mined, simple manual selection is a common beneficiation method for many small mines. Due to the high geological grade and stable quality of some mines, qualified barite products can be selected by hand selection according to the difference in color and density between barite and associated minerals. The rich lump barite is selected by hand selection method, the particle size is 30-150mm, BaSO4>95%, generally more than 92%.

In general, the hand-separation method is simple and easy to operate, and can be carried out without barite beneficiation equipment, and is suitable for small-scale beneficiation. However, the productivity is low, the ore grade is required to be high, and the resource waste is serious.

The barite gravity separation method is mainly based on the density difference between barite and associated minerals, including washing, screening, desliming, jigging, shaking and other processes, and is mostly used for residual barite ore.

The barite raw ore is washed, screened, crushed, graded and deslimed, and then the barite concentrate of better quality can be obtained by jigging and other barite beneficiation equipment, and the product grade can reach more than 88%.

Jaw crusher or impact crusher is generally used in the crushing stage of barite, and roller crusher is generally used for fine crushing. In the separation stage, heavy medium drum separators, cone classifiers, jig separators or shakers are used. When the particle size of barite is greater than 2mm, heavy medium separation and jigging separation can usually be used. However, the upper limit of particle size for heavy media separation is 50mm, and the upper limit of particle size for wet and dry jig separation is about 20mm. When the particle size of barite is less than 2mm, the shaker can be used for separation. However, the sludge must be removed before the separation operation to improve the separation effect.

(Jig machine for barite gravity separation)

The specific gravity of barite is 4-4.6, which has good floatability. The barite flotation method is mainly based on the difference in surface physical and chemical properties between barite and associated minerals. It is often used to process sedimentary barite ore and hydrothermal barite ore associated with sulfide ore and fluorite.

The flotation method is recommended for the separation of finely embedded ores and gravity tailings. The commonly used barite flotation process mainly includes positive flotation method and reverse flotation method. The purpose of reverse flotation method is to remove alkali metal sulfides.

As a common salt mineral, barite flotation process can be divided into two types according to the adsorption form. One is to use anionic collectors such as fatty acid alkyl sulfates and alkyl sulfonates to adsorb on the surface of barite minerals in the form of chemical adsorption, thereby separating them from other associated minerals. The other is to use cationic amine collectors to flotate barite in the form of physical adsorption. Amine collectors have low collection efficiency and are extremely sensitive to the impact of ore sludge, because anionic collectors are ideal. Usually, NaOH can be added to the ball mill to adjust the pH value to 8-10, water glass is added to the slurry as a modifier, and the barite flotation is carried out with an oleic acid collector under the condition of a solid concentration of 40%-50%.

(Flotation cell for barite processing separation)

The barite magnetic separation method is mainly based on the surface magnetic difference between barite and iron oxide minerals. It is often used to select some iron-bearing minerals such as siderite. Magnetic separation is often used in conjunction with gravity separation to produce barite as a raw material for barium-based pharmaceuticals requiring very low iron content.

(Magnetic separator for barite magnetic separation)

The barite ore associated with sulfide ore often adopts the combined process of gravity separation and flotation. Taking barite-quartz-calcite-type ore sorting as an example, in the combined flotation-gravity separation process, by adding sodium silicate and collectors to the flotation cell to remove quartz impurities, a mixed ore of barite and calcite is obtained. Then, according to the density difference between calcite and other gangue minerals and barite, gravity separation equipment such as calcite and shaking table is used for gravity separation operation, and finally barite concentrate is obtained.

Barite ore mined in the early stage is mostly high grade ore, which usually adopts low-cost and low-technology manual separation or gravity separation method. However, with the gradually low-grade barite ore and the complexity of ore properties, magnetic separation, flotation and combined beneficiation methods are gradually widely used in the separation of barite ore.

It is suggested that mine owners formulate scientific and reasonable beneficiation process flow according to beneficiation test report to avoid unnecessary economic losses. If you have other question or want to customize the barite beneficiation process, you can leave your message or chat with our online service, we will contact you soon.