Magnetite Concentrate Production
The first stage in manufacturing the MPI is to produce magnetite concentrate grading 67%Fe. This occurs in a beneficiation plant.
Crushed magnetite ore will be concentrated in a conventional beneficiation plant comprising grinding, magnetic separation and dewatering circuits to produce magnetite concentrate. An early ‘cobbing’ stage will reject around 70% of the waste material in the ore stream at a relatively course grind in order to reduce the quantity of material that needs grinding.
The beneficiation plant will be designed to facilitate expansion so that additional MPI making capacity can be installed at a later date to increase production from the planned 1,000,000tpa, up to an eventual 2.0Mtpa. The economics of the various production scenarios will be analysed during the study phase to determine the optimum initial plant configuration.
A representative concentrate has been prepared from the magnetite ore obtained from drilling carried out across the Yogi deposit. The specification of this concentrate is:
Fe% | SiO2% | Al2O3% | TiO2% | P% (XRF) | S% (XRF) | Cu% |
67.0 | 5.36 | 0.58 | 0.07 | 0.012 | 0.023 | 0.002 |
This iron ore concentrate has been successfully tested in the ITmk3(R) process to confirm its suitability for use in the manufacture of MPI.
