BENEFICIATION OF CALCINED COLEMANITE TAILINGS

The tailings produced from the calcination of Bigadic colemanite ore are upgraded by means of a gravity concentration method. The experiments were conducted in two separate fractions. The coarse (- 1 + 0.5 mm) and the fine (-0.5 mm) tailing fractions containing respectively 20.01% and 36.31% B2O3 were treated on a Deister Superduty Diagonal Deck laboratory concentrating table. Under the optimum conditions, a colemanite concentrate assaying 51.01% B2O3 with 68.67% recovery was obtained. The combined results of calcination and tabling resulted in a final concentrate containing 51.88% B2O3 with an 84.41% recovery rate.