Conception of a Tantalum-Niobite Granite Primary Ore Dressing Plant

Yichun Tantalum Niobium Ore Dressing Plant

The Yichun Tantalum and Niobium Mine is located in Yichun City, Jiangxi Province. It is a large-scale mineral deposit containing tantalum, niobium, lithium, and various rare metals in a albite biotite lithium mica granite. The ore contains (TaNb) 2O50.03% (Ta: Nb=1.8:1), Li2O0.861%, Rb2O0.284%, and Cs2O0.07%. Tantalum niobium ore deposits mainly consist of manganese rich niobium tantalum iron ore, fine-grained ore, and tantalum cassiterite. Lithium is mainly lithium mica, beryllium is mainly green cornerstone, and phosphoberyllite. Most of it is present in lithium mica. Gangue stones mainly include feldspar and quartz. A few other mineral deposits include topaz, magnetite, hematite, ilmenite, manganese ore, and apatite. Mineral grain: Manganese rich niobium tantalum iron ore and tantalum cassiterite, generally 0.3-0.1mm, and fine grain stone generally 0.2-0.08mm. This mine is an important material base for China’s current tantalum niobium, lithium, glass, and ceramic industries.

The beneficiation plant is planned to produce 1500 tons per day. The beneficiation process is shown in Figure 1. There are six parts: the crushing section for ore washing, the grinding and re selection section, the primary fine mud section, the secondary fine mud section, the lithium mica flotation workshop, and the feldspar powder recovery workshop. The ore (-800mm) is shaken and washed by a sieve washing machine. The material on the sieve (>130mm) is roughly crushed by a jaw crusher, medium crushed by a standard cone crusher, and finely crushed by a short head cone crusher. The final crushing particle size is -25mm. The material below the sieve (<130 mm) is fed into the oscillating sieve and spiral classifier. The overflow of the spiral classifier (<0.2mm) is sent to the primary ore slurry section, which is concentrated, deslimed, graded, and sorted using a shaker. The spiral classifier settles sand (>0.2mm) and fine products are fed into the rod mill together, with a grinding particle size of -0.5mm, forming a closed circuit with the ZS linear screen. Materials aluminum smaller than 0.5 millimeters are fed into the magnetic separator to select iron ore deposits and iron filings. Non magnetic materials are fed to a spiral classifier, and a portion of tantalum niobium concentrate is selected through a spiral chute shaker for sorting. The tailings are sent to a ball mill, ground to 0.2 millimeters, merged with a spiral overflow (-0.2 millimeters), and classified by magnetic separation, desliming, and hydraulic classifier. The slime (secondary and primary slime merged) is roughly selected by a centrifugal concentrator, selected by a belt chute, and the tail ore of the belt chute is swept by a shaking table. Graders use spiral chutes and shakers to separate and select tantalum niobium concentrates for materials of grades 1-4. Tailings feeding φ A 250mm cyclone is used to remove fine mud, and a mixed amine is used as a collector in the bottom flow of the cyclone to select a lithium mica concentrate. Flotation tailings, also known as feldspar powder, are high-quality materials for glass ceramics.
Production target: tantalum niobium concentrate grade 44.91% (TaNb) 2O5, with a recovery rate of 45.6%; The grade of lithium mica concentrate is 4% to 4.5% Li2O, with a recovery rate of about 60%, and feldspar powder is not recovered.
Xinmu Tin Tantalum Niobium Tungsten Concentrator at Limu Mine

Limu Mine is located within the territory of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is a tin, tantalum niobium, tungsten granite polymetallic deposit. The ore contains 0.1377% Sn, (TaNb) 2O50.0229% (Ta: Nb=1:1), and WO30.0257%. The main tin deposits are cassiterite, with a few being tetrahedrite and colloidal tin. Tantalum niobium ore deposits mainly consist of niobium manganese ore, manganese tantalum ore, niobium iron ore, and fine-grained ore. Tungsten deposits are mainly composed of wolframite. Gangue stones mainly include quartz and feldspar. Mineral grain size: Cassiterite is generally below 0.2 millimeters, while tantalum niobium ore and wolframite are generally between 0.1 and 0.05 millimeters. The selection and smelting combined process is used to produce refined tin, tantalum oxide, tantalum powder helical gear mould, niobium hydroxide, niobium oxide, ammonium tungstate, tungsten oxide, and other products. The entire process consists of three parts: a roughing plant, a selection plant (including the tin smelting section), and a water smelting plant. It is the first tantalum niobium mining, beneficiation, and smelting joint manufacturer in China.
The roughing plant selects a jig spiral shaker flow chart 2 with two-stage crushing and two-stage grinding. The ore (300mm) is sieved through a 70mm rod sieve, and ore larger than 70mm is sent to 400 × 600mm jaw crusher. Feed materials larger than 25mm into coarse crushing products φ The 900mm standard cone crusher crushes to -25mm and passes through a double-layer vibrating screen for screening. Materials larger than 3mm are fed into 2100 × A 3000mm rod mill with a grinding particle size of 0.3mm, forming a closed circuit with an arc screen and spiral classifier. Materials smaller than 0.3 millimeters are fed into a trapezoidal jig, and a portion of the coarse concentrate is selected from the jig concentrate using a spiral chute shaker. The tailings are fed into a ball mill and then ground to 0.15 millimeters. After grading with a grading bucket, a grading shaker is selected for the overflow of the grading bucket (-0.15 mm). The grading bucket settles sand (+0.15 mm) by first selecting a portion of the concentrate using a shaker, discarding some of the tailings, and then returning the ore from the shaker back to the grinding circuit, achieving “early collection and early disposal” and avoiding over grinding. Jigging tailings passing through φ 500mm φ 300mm φ 125 mm and φ The 75mm cyclone is used for grading and desliming, the cyclone is used for sand settling using a shaker for sorting, and the overflow of the cyclone is rough selected using a centrifugal concentrator and a belt chute for sorting. The total coarse concentrate of tin tantalum niobium tungsten obtained contains 12.54% Sn, (TaNb) 2O51.641%, WO331.139%, and the recovery rate of rough selection is: Sn52% -53%, (TaNb) 2O541% -42%, and WO364% -65%, which is sent to the concentration plant for further processing. Tailings are made of glass and ceramic materials.

The selection plant (including the tin smelting section) adopts the combined process of selection and smelting (see Figure 3). The mixed coarse concentrate of tin tantalum niobium tungsten from the roughing plant is first mixed and boiled with 7% at a temperature of 80 ℃, and then classified by a hydraulic classifier, deslimed by a hydraulic cyclone, and sorted by a shaking table. The shaker selection first uses a weak magnetic field magnetic separator to remove iron ore deposits, and then uses a dry strong magnetic separator to separate magnetic and non magnetic mineral deposits. The magnetic ore group consists of tantalum niobium iron ore and wolframite (i.e. tantalum niobium tungsten mixed concentrate), which are sent to a water smelting plant for treatment. The non magnetic ore group consists of cassiterite sulfide ore, which is then removed by floating gravity separation to obtain refined tin from the tin concentrate, which is then sent to the pyrometallurgical section for refining. The tin slag still contains (TaNb) 2O510% to 12%, which is sent to the water smelting plant for treatment. The fine mud generated in the process will be collected and fed into the sedimentation tank, and then passed through φ 300mm and φ The 125mm cyclone is classified, and the bottom flow of the cyclone is selected using a tension spring shaker. Cyclone overflow is sorted using circular grooves. The selected fine mud concentrate is roasted and leached with soda, and the leached residue is sent to a pyrometallurgical plant for treatment to obtain refined tin and tantalum niobium slag. The leached tungsten solution is purified to form scheelite, which is sent to a hydrometallurgy for treatment together with tantalum niobium tin slag. Selection target: Refined tin contains 99.8% Sn, with a recovery rate of 76% to 85%; Tin slag contains (TaNb) 2O510% to 12%. The tantalum niobium black tungsten mixed concentrate contains (TaNb) 2O517%, WO337%, Sn6%, and the recovery rate is (TaNb) 2O587%, WO390%.

Hydrometallurgical Plant

Select the process of sodium carbonate roasting, differentiation, and secondary octanol extraction (Figure 4). The entire process consists of three Building parts: enrichment section, tantalum niobium extraction separation section, and tungsten tin induction recovery section. Firstly, the tantalum niobium black tungsten mixed concentrate and tantalum niobium containing tin slag are sent to the enrichment section for batching (concentrate: soda ash: carbon powder=1:0.4:0.06; tin slag: soda ash: carbon powder=1:0.25:0.05) grinding [(-0.15mm)>95%], roasting (800-900 ℃), grinding, water boiling leaching, filtration, and other processes. The tungsten containing solution is sent to the tungsten tin induction recovery section to remove phosphorus, arsenic, and silicon using magnesium salt purification method. Then, calcium chloride (CaCl2) is added to form scheelite, which is then differentiated and purified to produce industrial grade tungsten oxide. The filter residue is treated with dilute acid for desilication, boiling, filtration, and other processes. The filtrate is restored by iron filings and electroformed, resulting in the electrodeposition of tin containing 75% to 85% Sn at the cathode. The slag refers to the artificial tantalum niobium concentrate, which is sent to the extraction separation section for differentiation, extracted with secondary octanol, and tantalum niobium enters the organic phase. The niobium solution is extracted by adding anti niobium agent 2NH2SO4, and then extracted with pure water using anti tantalum agent. The niobium solution is precipitated and calcined to obtain niobium oxide (containing Nb2O598.72%) products; Tantalum oxide (Ta2O599.84%) and products were obtained by precipitation and calcination of tantalum solution. Hydrometallurgical targets: tantalum oxide grade 99.84% Ta2O5, niobium oxide grade 98.72% Nb2O5, and tantalum niobium hydrometallurgical recovery rate 85.97%; The grade of tungsten oxide is 99.8% WO3, and the recovery rate of tungsten hydrometallurgy is 81%.