Gravity separation is the primary method used to beneficiate Ta-Nb-bearing minerals, however, it performs poorly in low-grade and fine-grained ores. A comparative study of gravity separation products (concentrate, middlings, and tailings) reveals the factors affecting the separation behavior of Ta-Nb-bearing minerals in the process combined with a spiral chute and shaking table from the perspective of mineralogy. The results reveal that columbite-tantalite is the principal Ta-Nb-bearing mineral. As the grinding time increases, the grade of Ta and Nb in concentrate increases significantly. The grain size of columbite-tantalite in the concentrate is the coarsest, followed by that in the middlings, and the finest in the tailings, which are mainly distributed in the range of -150+38 μm, -75+20 μm, and -38 μm, respectively. The liberation degree of columbite-tantalite in the concentrate and tailings is positively correlated with grinding time, while that in the middlings is negatively correlated with grinding time. The density of columbite-tantalite-bearing particles in concentrate is mainly distributed above 3 or even 4, due to the high liberation degree of the columbite-tantalite in the concentrate, as well as the high amount of rich intergrowth associated with heavy minerals. The density of Ta-Nb-bearing mineral particles in the middlings and tailings is predominantly distributed in D<3, owing to columbite-tantalite mainly associated with lighter gangue minerals such as quartz, albite, and orthoclase. It demonstrates that the liberation degree is not the most essential factor in determining columbite-tantalite separation behavior in the gravity field, and the mineralogical characteristics of columbite-tantalite including grain size, association relationship, and particle density, may be more important. The results of this investigation can provide theoretical support for the strengthening separation of low-grade tantalum-niobium ore.
In order to rationalize the development and utilization of the wall rock discarded during rare earth mining, chemical analysis, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, artificial panning, optical microscope analysis, mineral liberation analysis and energy-dispersive spectroscopy were used to study the process mineralogy of the wall rock. The results show that the main useful elements in the rare earth wall rock were iron, light rare earth elements, fluorine and niobium. Iron was mainly occurrence as magnetic iron in magnetite, rare earth elements in bastnaesite and monazite, fluorine as a independent mineral in fluorite and niobium in columbite. The main useful minerals were finely disseminated, with magnetite (48.16%), bastnaesite (49.04%), monazite (42.18%), fluorite (39.30%) and columbite (63.26%) distributed in -0.030 mm particle size. The useful minerals were evaluated separately for beneficiation based on the process mineralogical characteristics of the rare earth wall rock, and the results showed that magnetite, rare earth and fluorite resources could be effectively recovered using magnetic separation, flotation, gravity concentration and leaching enrichment methods. The sequential recovery of iron, rare earth, fluorine and niobium elements produces iron concentrate (65.40% TFe at recovery of 38.03%), rare earth concentrate (50.66% REE at recovery of 62.73%), fluorite concentrate (95.23% CaF2 at recovery of 40.34%) and niobium iron ore concentrate (1.63% Nb2O5 at recovery of 5.56%). This study provides recommendations for the rational development and utilization of rare earth wall rock and provides reasonable levels of recovery predictions.
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