Studies on Beneficiation of Manganese Ore through High Intensity Magnetic Separator

Abstract

Upgradation techniques like wet sieving and magnetic separation were used to evaluate the beneficiation potential of manganese ore. During wet sieving, manganese content in raw ore was upgraded from 27% to a maximum value of 38% in the concentrate with a recovery of 30%. Size classification was found to have no measurable effect on manganese grade in magnetic separation. In the unsieved ground ore, manganese content of 45% was achieved with a recovery of 23% and Mn/Fe ratio of 19% at a magnetic intensity of 8500 Gauss. At the same operating conditions, SiO₂ was reduced from 56% in the raw ore to 30% in the magnetic fraction. So, wet sieving technique leads to a comparatively lower manganese grade but better recovery. Conversely, a magnetic separation technique produced higher manganese grade but relatively lower recovery. Blending of the upgraded manganese ore with high grade iron ore can be done to achieve the required Mn/Fe ratio.