BENEFICIATION OF SOME EASTERN DESERT IRON ORES

Abstract

This thesis is devoted to study the amenability of beneficiating the Eastern Desert iron ores of Wadi-Kareem, Gabal El-Hadid, Um-Nar and Abu-Marawat localities to be suitable for blast furnace charging.

Literature survey covers the iron ore bodies, iron minerals and their associating gangue minerals. The reserves and production of iron ores in Egypt as well as the world, and the status of iron ore in Egypt. It also covers the different methods used for beneficiation of iron ores.

The experimental techniques used in iron ore samples, i.e. characterization, crushing, grinding, desliming, classification, magnetic separation, flotation, selective dispersion and selective flocculation were presented in details.

Results and discussions of this study indicated that the iron ore samples are oflow grade. They contained low iron contents (40.9- 45.76% Fe) and high amount of silica (25.95- 29.53%). XRD and microscopic examinations showed that quartz and calcite are the main gangue, while magnetite and hematite are the main iron minerals. The magnetite mineral is higher in Wadi-Kareem and is minor in Abu-Marawat iron ore sample. Chamosite (iron silicate) was also identified in the latter sample. The minerals are finely disseminated which require fine grinding.

Low intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) and /or high intensity magnetic separation (HIMS), wet and dry were investigated. The technique ofWLIMS was better with Wadi-Kareem, Gabal El-Hadid and Um-Nar ores while the technique ofWHGMS was successful with Abu-Marawat iron ore sample. At the optimum conditions of WLIMS, concentrates assaying 51.2%-61.6% Fe and 13.2-19.9% I.R. were obtained with the former three samples. Meanwhile, the application ofWHGMS on Abu-Marawat iron ore sample gave a concentrate of54.2% Fe and 19.1% I.R. with a recovery 29.82%.