Mineral beneficiation. Through the mineral beneficiation process, we try to pick up the
most useful ingredient. Firstly, we use shaking table to remove the
light impurity such as quartz from raw ore. Then the concentrate is
dried and sent to a magnetic separator to remove ilmenite. Then the
nonmagnetic tailing will be sent to electrostatic separator to
remove rutile. At last we can get the ore concentrate which include
more than 65% ZrO2. The ilmenite and rutile can be refined again to
get the by-product
Ball mill. Ball mill is widely used in this industry. It can work in two
ways: dry grinding and wet grinding. Formally, we use dry grinding
method to produce zirconium silicate. But during the process, some
powder come out of the machine, the external leakage causes a poor
working environment. So wet grinding has been increasingly used for
the production of ultrafine powders in various industries. The
major factors that can affect the efficiency of ball mill can be
concluded into three aspects.
First, the structural parameters of the ball mill which include the
volume, length Mineral beneficiation Ore concentrate Ball mill
Stirred mill Spray drying Packaging D50≤1.5μm Raw ore Product
D50≤2μm Advanced Materials Research Vol. 454 359 diameter ratio,
inside lining shape etc. Secondly, the operation parameters which
include rotational speed, filling rate, solid concentration etc.
Third, the properties of the raw materials like the hardness of
zircon, the input particle size and so on. The grinding efficiency
is strongly depended on the grinding medium bead size. At first,
steel ball is used as the medium, the steel has a high density, but
the hardness is low and easy to wear off. At the same time, the
steel medium could increase the content of Fe, so the steel ball is
eliminated. Zirconium oxide is a good choice as the grinding
medium, it has a high density and hardness, but the price is too
high for the factories to bear. Almost all the factories in China
choose corundum ball as the grinding medium. Adding the grinding
aid
