Recovery of Magnetic Iron Content in Beach Sands Mineral Processing of Ilmenite-Bearing Beach Sands: Maximizing Magnetic Iron Yield

Abstract

Preconcentration involves discarding a fraction of the feed before ore processing, so that it contains the least or no mineral of interest. This reduces the mass to be processed in subsequent operations, as well as lowering capital and operating costs. This study seeks to evaluate the possibility of obtaining beneficiation from beach sand samples through gravity separation tests to separate dense minerals, followed by a grinding and low-intensity magnetic separation stage to concentrate the magnetite. The analyzed sample presents opaque minerals such as magnetite, ilmenite, rutile, hematite, titanite, and titanomagnetite. Chemical analysis reveals that the sand contains 62.3% SiO ₂ , 8.2% CaO, 8.6% Fe, 1.8% K ₂ O, 2.0% TiO ₂ and 0.23% P ₂ O ₅ . The sand treatment recovered 39.3% of the magnetic iron, with a grade of 56.6%, and 23.4% of the TiO2 _, with a grade of 8.1%. The results indicate that more than 64.7% of the gangue can be discarded. This study demonstrates that physical separation processes can remediate contaminated sands, delivering a potentially profitable product.