Ain barbar feldspar magnetic beneficiation

Abstract

Though Algeria has many mineral resources which have been already developed, there are other resources that have to be valued such as feldspar. This paper deals with potassium feldspar from Ain Barbar deposit. The demand for feldspar as a raw material for the ceramic industry is continuously increasing, which implies an increase in the imports of this material. It became therefore imperative to develop the deposit in question. The ore contains essentially quartz, potassium oxide and iron with respective grades: 74.97% SiO2, 10.43% K2O and 0.60% Fe2O3. This latter is one of the principal impurities which will impart color and in turn degrade the quality of the ore. The objective of this work is to reduce the iron found in oxide form. For this purpose, we used High Gradient Magnetic Separation (HGMS), firstly by the dry process. This operation has allowed to reduce the iron content, from 0.60 to 0.40% Fe2O3, which is acceptable only for stoneware tiles paste of type "porcellenato". To further reduce this iron oxide content, a wet HGMS has been realized on a finer grain size (-40+20μm) and allowed to obtain a product with 0.19% Fe2O3, which can be used in the sanitary ceramics industry