Abstract
Bolshetagninskoe deposit is one of the most valuable potential Russian niobium resource. It contains challenging pyrochlore ore that in the pre-feasibility study stage has been divided into a few geological–metallurgical units by metallurgical–geological mapping (in general, it is adequate to geometallurgy field). The microcline–pyrochlore ore is the predominant and most challenging metallurgical unit at the deposit. To optimize this unit ore processing flowsheet, broad-view process mineralogy approach was applied. It was shown that preliminary processing of the microcline–pyrochlore ore by radiometric separation stabilizes floatation feed ore grade by decreasing gangue mineral content and content of pyrochlore grain of size less than 10 μm. Comparing pyrochlore grain size and liberation of it in the ore, comminuted by both conventional ball mill and innovative impact centrifuge mill, some grounds of dramatically increased floatation concentrate grade and recovery have been discovered. The fine-grained ore-forming pyrochlore (the mineral average weighted grain size is 61 μm in the radiometric separated ore) has a relatively low liberation degree in the grinding ore (63 %) that, in addition to close association of the mineral with microcline, causes reduced content of Nb2O5 (29.9 %) and high content of SiO2 (22.8 %) in the floatation final product. SiO2 is concentrated by microcline that is definitely needed for an intensive hydrometallurgy processing flowsheet to produce ferroniobium from the product.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Sidorenko GA, Aleksandrova IT, Petrova NV (1991) Process mineralogy of rare-metal ores (in Russian). Nauka, Saint-Petersbourg, p 236
Pozharitskaja LK, Samoilov VS (1972) Petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry Eastern Siberia carbonatites (in Russian). Nauka, Moscow, p 268
Azarnova LA, Temnov AV, Chistjakova NI, Naumova IS (2010) Kalipyrochlore from weathered ore at Bolshetagninskoe deposit (in Russian). Razvedka i ohrana nedr 3:33–37
Azarnova L, Temnov A (2010) Pyrochlore from metasomatic rocks at Bolshetagninskoe niobium deposit (Russia, Eastern Siberia). In: Proceedings of the 20th general meeting of the IMA, Budapest. Acta Mineral Petrogr. Abstr. Ser., vol 6. Department of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Petrology, University of Szeged, Szeged, p 564
Kotz GA, Chernopjatov SF, Shmanenkov IV (1980) Metallurgical sampling and mapping of ore deposits (in Russian). Nedra, Moscow, p 288
Dunham S, Vann J, Coward S (2009) Beyond geometallurgy—gaining competitive advantage by exploiting the broad view of geometallurgy. In: Proceedings of the first AusIMM international geometallurgy conference, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 5–7 September, 2011, pp 131–140
Stenin NJ, Azarnova LA, Belousova EB, Temnov AV (2011) Bolshetagninskoe deposit microcline niobium ore comminution method selection and assessment of its impact on floatation processing grade (in Russian). In: Proceedings of the international conference “Plaksinskie chtenija-2011” of scientific council for problems of mineral processing of RAN, Verhnaja Pishma, Russia, 19–24 September 2011, pp 101–105
Stenin NJ, Azarnova LA, Temnov AV, Kushparenko JS, Goeorgiady EK, Belousova EB (2010) Determination of metallurgical types of Bolshetagninskoe deposit niobium ore (in Russian). In: Proceedings of the international conference “Plaksinskie chtenija-2010” of scientific council for problems of mineral processing of RAN, Kazan’, Russia, 13–18 September 2010, pp 518–521
Acknowledgements
The author has taken a part in the Bolshetagninskoe deposit pre-feasibility study as a mineralogist-member of multidisciplinary specialist team and would like to acknowledge colleagues from VIMS and Giredmet institutes for the complex research effort performing. A. V. Temnov, the head of the project, and N. J. Stenin, the project chief-metallurgist, are gratefully thanked for their assistance and discussion, contributed to this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Azarnova, L. (2015). Bolshetagninskoe Deposit Microcline–Pyrochlore Ore Process Mineralogy. In: Dong, F. (eds) Proceedings of the 11th International Congress for Applied Mineralogy (ICAM). Springer Geochemistry/Mineralogy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13948-7_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13948-7_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13947-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13948-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)