Comparison between mineralogical and structural characteristics of iron ore tailing in ultrafine bands from different routes of beneficiation

This work presents the characterization of iron ore tailings discarded in flotation, magnetic separation and overflow of sludge thickener, for identification of particle size ranges with more iron content. The characterization by cyclosizer revealed that most of the flotation waste were retained between 6,69 and 32,13μm, of the magnetic separation below 4,11μm and the overflow of sludge thickener below 4,02μm. FRX showed that the flotation and magnetic separation tailings are consist essentially of SiO₂, Fe₂O₃ and Al₂O₃, and overflow of SiO₂ and Fe₂O₃. DRX showed that the flotation sample it is composed by hematite, quartz, kaolinite and talc, magnetic separation by quartz, goethite, kaolinite and rhomboclase, and overflow by quartz, hematite and goethite. By liberation and mineralogy analysis was conclude that tailing shave high iron content and, based on this and other external studies, some routes have been suggested for its reuse. (author)