Dry deep screening of spodumene and its mineral processing technology

• Published in: Minerals engineering 2022-03, Vol.179, p.107445, Article 107445
• Main Authors: Wang, Weinan, Pan, Miao, Duan, Chenlong, Jiang, Haishen, Zhao, Yuemin, Lu, Hede
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dry deep screening; Linear vibrating flip-flow screen; Mineral processing technology; Spodumene ore
• ISSN: 0892-6875; 1872-9444
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2022.107445

•The large-scale dry 0.8 mm screening of spodumene was realized.•The kinematic characteristics and spatial trajectory of the screen was clarified.•The Screening of 0.8 mm under different treatment capacities was carried out.•A new mineral processing technology for spodumene was proposed. Screening is an important part of mineral processing. In this paper, a large-scale dry screening method (the 0.8 mm classification of linear vibrating flip-flow screen) for spodumene is proposed, which break through the lower limit of traditional large-scale dry deep screening. First, the kinematic characteristics and spatial trajectory of different regions of the fixed and floating frames of the linear vibrating flip-flow screen were investigated. The screening effect of spodumene at different treatment capacities was explored. When the treatment capacity reached 4.47 t/(h·m2), the screening efficiency reached 70.56%, and the total mismatched material content of the screening machine was 8.55%. Thus, a combined process of dry–wet two-stage desliming, gravity separation, and flotation for spodumene raw ore is proposed, which decreases the amount of raw ore entering the grinding process, reduces the power consumption of the equipment, and contributes to energy savings of the concentrator. This study provides a new process for the efficient enrichment and recovery of lithium from spodumene.