Estudo da beneficiação de areias pesadas de Chibuto

Abstract

Mozambique is a country rich in heavy sands and has the potential to become one of the world's largest one of the world's largest producers of minerals such as ilmenite, rutile and zircon. For this reason a study was carried out into the beneficiation of Chibuto's heavy sands. In the first phase, a sample of heavy sands was collected in the Chibuto district of Gaza. district in Gaza, from which a representative sample was taken (previously homogenised and quartered) to (previously homogenised and quartered) to carry out particle size separation. This separation revealed that 85% of the grains in this sand are smaller than 1000 μm and larger than 250 μm. Next Next, each particle size fraction of sand obtained from the previous stage was subjected to gravitational separation on a Wilfley vibrating table, where the concentrate of the fraction of 125 μm proved to be the richest in heavy minerals. After gravitational separation, each concentrate fraction obtained on the Wilfey table was subjected to a magnetic magnetic separation, starting with the handheld magnet followed by the Frantz electromagnetic separator. Frantz electromagnetic separator, thus obtaining two fractions: that of the magnetic minerals with around 70% and non-magnetic minerals (19%). Next, each fraction of the concentrate from the Wilfey table was then subjected to classic mineralogical analysis using a binocular optical microscope, where it was found that most of the heavy minerals occur in the finer particle size ranges. ranges. Afterwards, the fractions of the Wilfey table concentrate were mixed and subjected to diffraction. (TRADUCAO NOSSA)