Beneficiation of Azara Barite ore using a combination of jigging, froth flotation and leaching

Abstract

In this research, Jigging, Froth Flotation and leaching have been used to beneficiate barite ore from Azara, Nasarawa State Nigeria. Chemical analysis on the ore indicates that it contains 53.09% of Ba and 11.52% S with a specific gravity value of 3.207±0.03. After the jigging operation, the specific gravity values of the underflow and overflow are 3.77±0.029 and 2.77±0.058 respectively while the Ba and S increased to 78.61% and 15.87% respectively. After the froth-flotation, the specific gravity values obtained are 3.95, 4.1 and 4.05 corresponding to pH values of 5, 7 and 9 respectively. Frothed barite with pH of 7 was leached with 0.2M HCl and a mixture of 0.2M HCl and HOCl. After leaching, the specific gravity values are 4.38±0.03 and 4.27±0.02 for HCl and HCl+HOCl respectively. The X-ray diffraction patterns show that highly crystalline peaks are obtained after froth flotation while more phases are added with leaching.

Exploration and characterization of barite mineral from azara-nassarawa ore deposits for suitability in industrial applications

“…This is an indication that both gravity concentration methods can successfully be adopted for barite mineral upgrade, and thus in the recovery of barium as well as in the reduction of certain mineral impurities found in the barite ore. This is also in agreement with previous investigations reported elsewhere (Nzeh and Hassan, 2018;Mgbemere et al, 2018Mgbemere et al, , 2019. Finally, the SG results of the as-received barite ore and the concentrates from both jigging and tabling gravity separation methods are displayed in Table 6.…”

“…This confirms the XRF results of the as-received sample. More so, this corresponds with the report by Mgbemere, et al (2018). It is also noteworthy that the gold (Au) traces detected in the EDS and not the XRF analysis was as a result of the sample preparation procedure carried out for the SEM analysis.…”