A Novel Process for Titanium Sand by Magnetic Separation and Gravity Concentration

With the continuous depletion of high-grade titanium ores and the increasing demand for titanium dioxide, the low-grade titanium sand has become an important source for the production of ilmenite concentrate; however, the large-scale utilization of the sand is disappointedly scarce, due to its leanness in valuable minerals and insufficient methods available to handle such low-grade sands. A typically low-grade titanium sand was first ground and then processed by low-intensity magnetic separation (LMS) and high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) to recover titanomagnetite and ilmenite, respectively; as the TiO₂ grade of the sand is low, the primary treatment of the sand by magnetic separations is effective, with 78.45% by mass weight of the sand discarded as tailings. The primary titanomagnetite concentrate was further ground and liberated to obtain a high-grade titanomagnetite concentrate through LMS reconcentration; the primary ilmenite concentrate was separated with spirals to remove the sterile limonite and magnetic gangues, and its concentrate was ground and liberated to achieve a high-grade ilmenite concentrate through HGMS refining. This novel process achieved an effective processing of the sand and obtained a high-grade ilmenite concentrate assaying 46.30% TiO₂ with a high recovery of 57.88%, and a by-product of titanomagnetite concentrate assaying as high as 54.17% Fe.