Iron Ore Beneficiation Methods

Beneficiation means the following asapplied to iron ore: milling (crushing and grinding), washing, filtration, sorting, sizing, gravity concentration, magnetic separation, flotation and agglomeration (pelletizing, sintering, briquetting, or nodulizing). Although the literature suggests that all these methods have been used to beneficiate iron ore, information provided by members of the American Iron Ore Association indicates that milling and magnetic separation are the most common methods used. Gravity concentration is seldom used at existing U.S. facilities. Flotation is primarily used to upgrade concentrates from magnetic separation by reducing the silica content of the concentrate.

Most beneficiation operations will result in the production of three materials: a concentrate; a middling or very low-grade concentrate, which is either reprocessed (in modern plants) or stockpiled; and a tailing (waste), which is discarded.

Before describing beneficiation methods/practices, it should be noted that the iron ore industry uses large amounts of water. The beneficiation of iron ore typically occurs in a liquid medium. In addition, many pollution abatement devices use water to control dust emissions. At a given facility, these techniques may require between 600 and 7,000 gallons of water per ton of iron concentrate produced, depending on the specific beneficiation methods used. Table 1-5 presents a summary of the average water usage at four iron ore operations. The table also includes a breakdown of the sources of the water used; much of the water is recycled from plant operations. Industry has indicated that an average of 95 percent of the water appropriated by iron ore facilities is recirculated and reused according to the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota.

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