Investigating the Production of Ultrafine Engineering Material from Low-Grade Gariti Barite Ore Using Gravity Concentration Methods

Abstract

The objective of this research is to upgrade the low-grade Gariti barite ore to produce an ultrafine engineering material that can be used for industrial application by the assessing gravity concentration method. The research focuses on chemical characterization, fractional sieve size analysis, scrubbing technique, wilfley shaking table technique, and air float technique. The sample was subjected to an energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and fractional sieve analysis of the crude sample was carried out at a sieve range of 1400-63 µm towards the production of ultrafine mineral-based material for liberation size determination. Ten (10) kg, each of the actual liberation size were used for the scrubbing technique, wilfley shaking table technique, and air float technique respectively. The chemical analysis indicates the presence of major elements 79.20 % BaSO4, 14.4% SO3, 64.80% BaO, 3.80% Fe2O3, 5.15% SiO2, 1.40% TiO2, and other minor elements that confirms that the soured mineral is barite while the particle size analysis showed that -250+ 180 µm sieve size fraction assaying 89.11% BaSO4 is the ore’s actual liberation size. The chemical analysis of the low-grade Gariti Barite ore after undergoing a concentration test at the economic liberation size revealed the values of concentrates from the scrubbing technique to be 86.60% BaSO4, Wilfley shaking table technique to be 86.10% BaSO4, and air float technique to be 88.30% BaSO4 and from this results, it shows that air float technique had the highest assaying value. Finally, the low-grade Gariti barite ore has been upgraded from 79.20% BaSO4 to ultrafine mineral-based engineering material of 86.60%, 48.6% 86.10%, and 88.30% BaSO4 via gravity concentration method.