Separation of Iron and Rare Earths from Low-Intensity Magnetic Separation (LIMS) Tailings through Magnetization Roasting-Magnetic Separation

Low-intensity magnetic separation tailings (LIMS tailings) are a common by-product obtained after magnetite magnetic separation. In this article, various techniques such as chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction, ICP-MS, and Mineral Liberation Analysis (MLA) were employed to investigate the LIMS tailings. The primary iron-bearing mineral identified was hematite and rare earth minerals were monazite and bastnaesite. The main gangue species was fluorite with small amounts of dolomite and amphibole. Due to the weak magnetism of hematite and rare earth minerals, magnetic separation has low efficiency. However, magnetization roasting-magnetic separation is an effective method to recover hematite. The present study focuses on the separation of iron and rare earth from LIMS tailings through magnetization roasting-magnetic separation. The results demonstrate that with a roasting temperature of 650 degree celsius, a roasting time of 60 min, a slurry concentration solid-liquid ratio of 25 : 1, a rough magnetic field intensity of 0.16 T, and a selected magnetic field intensity of 0.10 T, the iron grade in the magnetic concentrate increases to 65.49 % and an iron recovery rate of 65.16 % can be achieved. The XRD patterns of magnetic separation concentrate show that the main mineral phases in concentrate are magnetite (Fe3O4) and fluorite (CaF2), which can be removed by grinding and reverse flotation fluorite to obtain a high-grade iron concentrate. The REO grade of magnetic separation tailings is 11.98 %, and its recovery rate is 97.96 %. Consequently, rare earth can be effectively extracted and separated after the subsequent flotation-leaching process.

Automated summary

This article investigates the composition and separation methods of LIMS tailings, identifying the main mineral phases and gangue species. Magnetization roasting-magnetic separation is proposed as an effective method for recovering iron and rare earth from the tailings. Experimental results show that with optimized parameters, the iron grade and recovery rate in the magnetic concentrate can reach satisfactory levels. Additionally, the rare earth can be effectively extracted and separated after subsequent flotation-leaching.