Characterization and Pre-Concentration of Low-Grade Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite Ore

A large number of unexploited low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite deposits have been found in the Chao-yang area of China in recent years. The reserves are estimated at more than 20 billion tons. A mineralogical study of raw sample indicated that it was a typical low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore with weathering. Most of vanadium-titanium magnetite was replaced by martite and sphene, which would affect the recovery of valuable elements. The intergrowth relationship between vanadium-titanium magnetite and sphene was very complex, and the grain size of sphene was generally fine, and could not be completely liberated even by fine grinding, whereas the content of vanadium and titanium in sphene was higher than that in vanadium-titanium magnetite, resulting in vanadium-titanium magnetite concentrates with characteristics of high vanadium and titanium content. A magnetic separation process was investigated for the pre-concentration of low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore. The results showed that 73.52% of feed ore were directly discarded for reducing the processing capacity of follow-up processing. A vanadium-titanium magnetite concentrate with 1.14% V2O5, 22.22% TiO2, 42.51% Fe and a rough concentrate of ilmenite with 16.05% TiO2, 20.77% Fe were obtained from low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore which contains 0.050% V2O5, 1.67% TiO2 and 8.53% Fe.