Use of Wet Screening in Modern Iron Ore Beneficiation Plant 35

Use of Wet Screening in Modern Iron Ore

Beneficiation Plant
D.N. Deshpande, Praveen Kumar M. and Prashant Bawankule
Essar Excellence Centre, Essar Group

ABSTRACT: Grinding is the first step in beneficiation, so that mineral liberation is possible in subsequent
stages. Post-grinding, a typical iron ore beneficiation plant will have Hydro-cyclones, Spirals, and Magnetic
Separators etc., which take the advantage of mainly physical and magnetic properties of the minerals. These
equipment works at their maximum efficiency only when they receive the input close to their design
conditions.
Addition of wet screens to the iron ore beneficiation circuit at suitable location can improve the output of the
plant. In addition to capacity up gradation and high quality feed to further process, the usage of wet screens
also leads to lower capital investment and low power consumption. Use of at least one fine screening in the
beneficiation circuit in combination with Hydro cyclone, ensures the optimum feed to down the line
equipment, so that highest efficiency can be achieved resulting into higher productivity coupled with lower
gangue.

1. INTRODUCTION (Fe3O4), and Goethite (Fe2O3H2O) are considered

as the major deposits. Three fourth of Indian iron
India is abuzz with growing economy. Increasing ore deposits are of Hematite type and one fourth
steel production capacity to 110–115 Mtpa by are of Magnetite type. Beneficiation of iron ore in
2020 will be a giant step towards economic India has been limited to only washing of ores.
reforms. This will require about 300 million tons This is mainly due to the higher Fe (63% Avg)
of geological reserves (Table 1) of iron ore on content in the iron ore and it has been long
yearly basis. According to recent reports, the high established that at least one third of alumina can
grade iron ore reserves of India will last only for be separated from the lump ore just by washing.
about 20 years. But, with depletion of high grade iron ore
reserves, a time has come when beneficiation of
Table1: Iron ore consumption per ton of low grade iron ores will play important role in
saleable steel sustainable industrial growth.
Item Tons /ton of The common beneficiation processes like
steel
Geological Reserve 2.65
Wet Scrubbing, Gravity Separation, Magnetic
Run-of-Mine(ROM) 2.13 Separation, Froth and Column Flotation, etc. take
Processed Iron Ore 1.7 the advantages of the difference in the physical
Hot metal Production 1.15 properties like Hardness, Specific gravity,
Crude Steel 1.05 Magnetic and Electrostatic properties between the
Saleable Steel 1.0 iron and associated gangue minerals.

2. NECESSITIES OF IRON ORE 3. WET SCREENS & HYDROCYCLONES

BENEFICIATION
Most of the Iron Ore beneficiation plants will be
More than 300 minerals contain iron, but from the designed for a particular type of iron ore and
point of occurrence in outsize and economical associated gangue minerals for a particular region.
mining only Hematite (Fe2O3), Magnetite The increased demand of high grade beneficiated
36  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)
iron ore will compel the designed beneficiated
plant to be driven at higher rates at a future date. 100
Original feed
In the grinding mill, the higher feed rates will lead 90
Modified feed
to higher fractions of oversize in the output of the 80 original underflow
mill. This deteriorates the feed quality of slurry 70 original overflow

Cumulative percentage passing

60
going to hydrocyclone resulting into inefficient
50
separation between oversize and undersize 40
particles. 30

Hydrocyclones work on the principle of the 20

difference in size, shape and specific gravity of 10

0
the particles. Any variation in these parameters of 1 10 100 1000 10000
the feed will have direct effect on the efficiency of Particle size (microns)
the hydrocyclone. Depending upon the Fig. 2: Modified feed for Hydrocyclones
configuration of the plant, the Hydrocyclone can
be used for (i) close circuiting with mill (ii) In case (ii), the coarser fraction in the overflow
classifying based on size, directing the overflow will not only make the operation of the thickener
to thickener and underflow for further difficult due to the higher torques, but also lowers
beneficiation. the efficiency of the (high gradient) magnetic
In case (i), a hydrocyclone will send finer separator resulting into poor recovery of Fe.
high Fe particles back to grinding while, In the past, hydrocyclones were used in
coarser, middling particles continue to the beneficiation plant due to constraints of wet
process. This will result in excessive grinding, screening of fines. It was often used in
more silica in the concentrate and reduction in conjunction with grinding mill for close
plant capacity. The efficiency of the circuiting. Earlier, fine screening in iron ore
hydrocyclones will also be on lower side. had typical concerns with screen surface
consumption and blinding. The maintenance of
the screen was also one of the deterring factors
for hydrocyclones being preferred over screens.
Also, large screening machines had to be used.
Hydrocyclones, in contrast, was actually simple
and compact in design and had low
maintenance.
However, with the constant evolution in the
technology, screening of fines in Iron Ore is
looked upon as a viable technology.
Fig. 1: Use of Wet Screen in conjunction with
Today wet screening up to 75 microns is
Hydrocyclones possible without much difficulty in operation.
This may well open up a plethora of ideas for
As illustrated in Fig. 1, addition of wet screen beneficiation of Indian iron ores.
ensures the optimum feed size to the The performance of most of the
hydrocyclone; this improves the hydrocyclones’ beneficiation technologies will differ for
efficiency, product quality and reduces the different size fractions of feed. Some
circulating load by avoiding excessive grinding. technologies will perform better for finer size
Additionally %Fe loss in tail grade gets reduced fraction while others will be better against
due to better recovery. coarser size fraction.
The Fig. 2 demonstrates how the screen After grinding, the treatment to the different
usage for close circuiting with mill would size fraction may vary and it is possible to use
improve the feed to Hydrocyclone. different beneficiation circuit for the two size
range. The economies and the recovery of the
Use of Wet Screening in Modern Iron Ore Beneficiation Plant 37
Fe units may very well be different in this circuiting will not only save high capital
scenario. investment but also add to lower power
consumption besides increased production.
4. APPLICATIONS OF WETSCREENS
4.2 Example 2
Wet screens can be widely used in many ways.
The screens can also be used in providing a close
Following are some of the major examples for
size range material to high gradient magnetic
process improvements in an Iron Ore
separator. The High Gradient Magnetic Separator
beneficiation plant using wet screening.
(HGMS) has coarse /intermediate /fine matrix on
However, it should be noted that in many
which it operates. If the feed to the HGMS is
facilities the wet screens actually combine one
controlled using the screens to suit the existing
or more of these categories into one installation
matrix, the efficiency of the HGMS shall
and provide better sized material to other
improve. As shown in Fig. 3, the use of low
process equipment such as Jigs, Gravity
capacity re-grind mill in close circuit with screen
Spirals, Hydrocyclones, Magnetic separators,
will give a sized feed to HGMS. The grinding
Thickeners and Flotation, improving not only
mill will help liberate more Fe and improve the
the overall plant efficiency but also increases
recovery.
the plant throughput and results into better iron
recovery.

4.1 Example 1

Situation may arise where there is increase in mill

load by 10 – 15 % due to following reasons:
(a) Deterioration in ore quality due to increase
in its hardness (BWI – Bond Work Index) or
(b) Use of low grade ore or
(c) Drive for higher production.

This naturally requires additional energy for the

mill to grind that extra load of material. This can
be done by four processes: Fig. 3: Use of Wet Screen in HGMS circuit
(i) Use of pre-grinding facilities (Like
Roller Press).
(ii) Addition of one more mill in the 4.3 Example 3
grinding circuit.
(iii) Use of prescreening the feed. Screens also play a vital role in flotation
(iv) Close circuiting of the grinding mill techniques. For example, in Samitri, Brazil, the
Here, a screen can come to the rescue of silica had to be reduced from 3 - 3.5 % to about
grinding mill. less than 1 % in product. Flotation technique
was used in this plant to reduce the silica. It
In absence of availability of good screens, it was observed that the feed to floatation cell had
would have been imperative to procure either a about 35 % 100 mesh (+ 150 microns)
roller press or a grinding mill, which would have particles. During tests, it was found that
been capital intensive as well as power intensive. removal of +150 microns before flotation
Use of screens for either prescreening or close
produced a good concentrate. After modifying use of reagents and reduced silica in final
the feed using screen, the feed contained about concentrate.
5-10 % +150 micron particles that resulted in
increased efficiency of the floatation, decreased 4.4 Example 4
38  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)
Wet screens can be used to remove alumina by use of the screens in conjunction with
method of classification. Alumina gets ground hydrocyclones or with other beneficiation
finer than Iron Ore due to its lower hardness. circuits as appropriate will definitely make the
On identification of the major source of plants more productive, low power and capital
alumina as being the particles less than intensive and also help in recovering more Fe
particular size, the screens can remove that than the plants without the wet screens.
fraction and thus eliminate them from further
process.
REFERENCES
Depending upon the ore characteristics and
operation need, wet screens can be used in many [1] Bond F C, Crushing & grinding calculations
ways in beneficiation plant. Addition of wet Part-I & II, British Chemical Engineering, Vol.6,
screen to the beneficiation circuit not only saves 8p (1961)
heavy capital investment & consumes low power [2] Teggart F A, Milling calculations, Handbook of
but also helps in capacity upgradation and high mineral Dressing, Ore and Industrial Materials
quality feed for further process. Use of at least (Wiley) Volume-I, Sec 19, Page 189.
one fine screening in the beneficiation circuit in [3] Monograph on Iron Ore, Mineral Facts and
combination with Hydrocyclone, ensures the Problems No: 17, Publication cell Indian Bureau
optimum feed to Spirals, Magnetic Separators, of Mines, 171,175 (1997).
flotation, etc., so that optimum efficiency can be [4] Maki J R, Application of the Screens to the Iron
achieved resulting into lower gangue and better Ore Industry, Skillings Mining Review, Vol 87
Fe recovery in the Iron Ore beneficiation plant. No.25
[5] Rao N. D., Rai S. K., Availability of Iron ore for
The Expanded Indian Steel Industry, Awakening
of The Indian Steel Industry: 2005-2020 Editor
Amit Chatterjee, 17-24(2006).
[6] Walqui H.J, Eisele T. C, Kawatra S.K,
Optimization of Comminution Circuit
5. CONCLUSIONS Throughput and Product Size Distribution by
Simulation and Control, Technical Progress
The progress of wet screening technologies will Report, Dept of Chemical Engg, Michigan
be of utmost importance to take the Technological University (2004).
beneficiation technologies to next level. The