The technological process of antimony ore dressing

Separation and enrichment of antimony minerals from ore containing antimony.The mineral processing product is antimony concentrate.Antimony concentrate is sent to smelting plant to extract metal antimony, crude antimony (antimony trisulfide) and antimony trioxide.

Mineral and natural resources containing antimony minerals as many as 120 kinds, there is industrial significance of antimony ore main if stibnite, followed by brittle sulfur antimony lead ore, thiomersal antimony ore, tetrahedral copper ore, fang antimony ore, yellow antimony hua, antimony hua and so on (see table).Industrial types of antimony ores are single sulfide antimony ore, tin antimony ore, tungsten antimony ore, gold antimony ore, mercury antimony ore, etc.China is rich in antimony mineral resources, reserves of the world's first.Hunan is the main source of antimony in China, followed by guangxi, guizhou, yunnan and gansu.In China, antimony ore is mainly lean ore and symbiotic ore, both of which are underground mining.The world's major antimony producing countries are Bolivia, South Africa, the former Soviet union, mainly in tajikistan and kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Australia, Turkey, Thailand and so on.Foreign antimony ore scale is small, mostly for mining and smelting respectively.Many countries only produce antimony ore or antimony concentrate, large smelting except Bolivia Vinto antimony smelting plant, mainly located in the United States, Japan, the former Soviet union and other industrial developed countries.

At present, although in the crust has been found antimony minerals and antimony containing minerals up to more than 120 kinds, but with industrial use value for the present smelting conditions, antimony containing more than 20 percent of antimony minerals only 10 kinds,Namely stibnite (Sb 71.4%), fang antimony ore (Sb 83.3%), antimony sinter (Sb 83.3%), antimony ochre (Sb 74% ~ 79%), yellow antimony sinter (Sb 74.5%), sulphide antimony ore (Sb 75.2%), natural antimony (Sb 100%), thiomersal antimony ore (Sb 51.6%), brittle sulphide antimony lead ore (Sb 35.5%), tetrahedrite (Sb 25%).Stibnite is the main mineral raw material for antimony smelting.Antimony ore type division, in the process of geological exploration should be divided into natural types and industrial types.The natural type of antimony ore, can be divided into oxidized ore, mixed ore, primary ore 3 kinds, its standard by antimony oxidation rate (%) division: oxidized ore >50%, mixed ore 30% ~ 50%, primary ore <30%.The industrial type of antimony ore, according to China's antimony deposit material composition characteristics, some antimony based on a single deposit, more is a multi-component co-associated deposit, some antimony and gold, mercury, tungsten and other co-associated.Therefore antimony ore industry types are: single antimony, antimony gold, antimony mercury, antimony gold tungsten, antimony tungsten and other types.Antimony ore general industrial requirements: boundary grade, containing Sb 0.7%;Industrial grade, containing Sb 1.5%;Minable thickness 1m;The removal thickness of the stone clip is 2m.This index of industrial requirements is for detailed inspection and reference only in the early stages of exploration.Any geological exploration report providing the basis for the construction of mines and the specific industrial indicators to be used in the exploration of mineral deposits shall be submitted to the geological exploration unit for preliminary comments, together with the necessary geological data, for economic accounting and comparative study by the mining design department entrusted by the industrial department and determined by the department in charge of industry at or above the provincial level.When the associated components of antimony deposit reach the following content, comprehensive evaluation should be paid attention to.

Grade of associated components in antimony deposit:Au 0.1g/t、WO3 0.05%、Hg 0.005%、Pb 0.2%、Zn 0.4%、As 0.2%、S 2%、Cu 0.1%、Sn 0.08%、Ag 2g/t、Bi 0.02%、Se 0.001%、Co 0.1%、Ni 0.1%、CaF2 5%、BaSO4 5%。

The process flow

According to the mineral composition and symbiosis, the ore processing is divided into single sulphide antimony ore processing, polymetallic sulphide antimony ore processing, mixed ore processing of sulphide antimony and oxidized antimony.

 Single sulphide antimony ore dressing:The main ore dressing object is stibnite.For the ores with coarse crystalline grain size, the combined process of manual separation, re - separation and flotation is adopted.Concentrate directly by hand and discard part of the waste rock.When the ore particle size is 20 ~ 150mm, the manually selected block concentrate and tailings contain sb45%, sb0.12%, and the recovery rate is 94%.Heavy separation mainly USES jigging machine and table, discard part of tailings, coarse concentrate for flotation after grinding.The ore with fine crystal size was directly flotation after crushing and grinding.Sulphide antimony ore flotation is in neutral, weak acid or weak alkaline medium, add activator lead nitrate, with terpinol oil flotation.When the ore contains Sb2 % ~ 3%, the antimony concentrate grade reaches 60% ~ 65%, the recovery rate is 90% ~ 95%.

 Polymetallic sulphide antimony ore ore dressing:The associated gold, tungsten, tin and mercury antimony ores are recovered by the combined process of stage grinding, grading, reprocessing and flotation.

 Antimony sulfide mixed with antimony oxide ore dressing:Because the ore contains much mud and is difficult to be sorted, the complicated process of hand-selection-reselection-floating-reselection-is generally needed.After crushing, screening and desliming of the ore, part of the concentrate can be reselected. After grinding, the fine sulphide antimony concentrate can be reselected. After reprocessing, the oxidized antimony ore can be recovered.