Processing of Iron Ore Fines from Alswaw

Iron ores located in the Alswaween area (Saudi Arabia) are of finely disseminated nature, requiring ultrafine grinding to achieve a considerable degree of liberation. This study investigates different upgrading techniques for processing these ores, specifically selective flocculation and column flotation, which are recent efficient technologies for fines upgrading. Each technique was thoroughly investigated and optimized separately to assess their effectiveness. The results reveal that neither selective flocculation nor column flotation can be employed independently to produce a high-quality iron concentrate, especially when utilizing iron ore of a size fraction of 100% -0.075 mm. The optimal quality concentrate achieved was found to contain 55% Fe for selective flocculation and 57% Fe for column flotation under their respective optimum operating conditions. Notably, these results improved significantly when the ore was ground to below 45 µm, and selective flocculation was used as a cleaning step for the concentrate obtained from column flotation. Through this combined approach, it is feasible to obtain a concentrate with an iron content of 63.55% Fe and 52.3% yield, translating to an iron recovery in the concentrate of approximately 80%.