LAUSR

Ore from the Jinzhulong Ta–Nb deposit was processed using a combination of gravity concentration and magnetic separation to upgrade the columbite–tantalite fines. Two flowsheets, namely for gravity concentration–magnetic separation (the conventional flowsheet) and magnetic separation–gravity concentration (the novel flowsheet), are proposed herein, and the factors affecting the performance of gravity/magnetic separation were studied to optimize the flowsheets. Compared with the conventional flowsheet, the novel flowsheet was more effective for columbite–tantalite beneficiation and beneficial to the comprehensive recovery of nonmetallic minerals. In the novel flowsheet, the sample is ground to size of P80 = −74 μm then fed into a combination of a low-intensity wet drum magnetic separator and pulsating high-gradient magnetic separator to reject nonmagnetic gangue minerals while preconcentrating the paramagnetic columbite–tantalite; the high-gradient magnetic separation concentrates were screened into three size fractions and further upgraded by gravity concentration. The enrichment ratios for Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 were 403.8 and 385.6, respectively.