Beneficiation of a Low-Grade Flaky Graphite Ore from Australia by Flotation

Abstract

The graphite ore from Australia is a sort of the low-grade and fine-scaled graphite ore. On the basis of the optimum rough grinding fineness, an open and a closed circuit tests were conducted which consist of one rougher, one scavenging, then four-time-regrinding and five-time-cleaning to the rough concentrate, one grinding and scavenging to the mixture of middling1~3, and the middling4~6 returned to the rougher, cleaning1 and cleaning2 respectively. Taking the kerosene, pine oil, lime as flotation reagents, the concentrate with grade improvement from 12.78% to 90.5% was achieved through the routine flotation method, as the flotation recovery rate reached to 92.46%.