Beneficiation of quartz sands from the Tugan deposit under industrial conditions
Abstract Generated abstract
Industrial beneficiation of quartz sands from the Tugan deposit is examined as a means of removing ferruginous clay that makes the raw material unsuitable for glassmaking and molding. The paper describes a flowsheet developed at Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and tested in 1965 on a seasonal industrial installation using screening, hydraulic transport, and hydrocyclone separation with a spiral device to improve pulp rotation. During one month of two-shift operation, about 3,000 tons of beneficiated sand were produced, with iron oxide reduced from about 0.41 to 0.45 percent in the feed to 0.12 to 0.16 percent in the product. The resulting sands had low clay content and met specified standards for molding sands and for quartz sand used in incandescent lamp bulbs.
Full Text
BENEFICIATION OF QUARTZ SANDS FROM THE TUGAN DEPOSIT UNDER INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS
S. A. BABENKO
(Presented at the scientific reporting conference of the Faculty of Chemical Technology)
Tugan quartz sands contain a considerable amount of ferruginous clay \((8.3—12.9\%)\), and therefore in their natural state are unsuitable for glassmaking and molding. In the Laboratory of Beneficiation and Technology of Mineral Raw Materials of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, a technological flowsheet for beneficiation of quartz sands was developed and was tested in the summer of 1965 under industrial conditions on a specially assembled seasonal installation (Fig. 1). From bunker 1, into which the mined mass is loaded by bulldozer, the raw sand is fed by plate feeder 2 onto belt conveyor 3 and then to drum screen 4 with an aperture size of 3 mm. Water is also supplied here in an amount ensuring a S:L ratio of \(1:3\). Coarse sand, gravel, and soil-and-plant residues, constituting the oversize product of the screen, are removed by hydraulic sluicing to the dump, while the undersize product flows by gravity into mixer 5, from where it is fed by sand pump 6 to hydrocyclones 7. The hydrocyclone sands are discharged onto a drainage pad, from where they are moved by bulldozer to the finished-product stockpile. The hydrocyclone overflow (clay and fine sand) is directed by gravity through a pipe to the dump.
Fig. 1. Schematic chain of apparatuses of the industrial beneficiation installation
(explanation in the text)
Effective separation of sand from clay is carried out in a hydrocyclone equipped with a special spiral device in its cylindrical part, in order to impart rotational motion to the initial pulp.
Water for the installation is supplied from a river, where a water-intake structure has been built and pumps installed. Electrical power is supplied by two mobile power stations of 30 kW each.
Over a month of two-shift operation, about 3 thousand tons of beneficiated sands were obtained. The chemical composition of the initial and beneficiated quartz sands (Table 1) indicates a reduction in iron oxide in the latter to 0.16–0.12%, compared with 0.45–0.41% in the initial sands.
Table 1
Chemical composition of sands
| Sample designation | Content, % | Content, % | Content, % | Content, % | Content, % | Content, % | Content, % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| l.o.i. | SiO₂ | TiO₂ | Al₂O₃ | Fe₂O₃ | CaO | MgO | |
| initial sand: | |||||||
| sample No. 1 | 0.88 | 93.88 | 0.17 | 1.97 | 0.41 | 0.70 | 0.65 |
| sample No. 2 | 0.64 | 96.69 | 0.14 | 0.81 | 0.45 | 0.42 | 0.42 |
| beneficiated sand: | |||||||
| sample No. 1 | 0.24 | 97.60 | 0.05 | 0.79 | 0.16 | 0.53 | 0.50 |
| sample No. 2 | 0.18 | 97.95 | 0.08 | 0.75 | 0.12 | 0.38 | 0.27 |
The clay content in the beneficiated sands ranges from 1.65 to 0.70%. In terms of chemical and particle-size composition, the beneficiated sands meet the requirements of GOST 2138-56 and correspond to grade KOA. These sands also fully meet the requirements imposed on quartz sands for the manufacture of bulbs for electric incandescent lamps.