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

Abstract

Primary concentrations of Azara barite deposit in Nassarawa state, Nigeria were conducted; employing simplified gravity concentration techniques. Particle size distribution, specific gravity, physicochemical and morphological analyses of the sample was conducted. These analyses were done in order to establish process efficacy and effectiveness of gravity concentration processes for recovery of barium from the ore deposit, as well as its suitability in various industrial applications, such as the oil and gas sectors. Thus, microstructural, chemical composition and certain physicochemical characteristics/properties of the mineral sample of Azara-Nassarawa barite were determined. XRD, XRF, SEM and EDS analyses were utilized in determining morphology as well as quantitative and qualitative chemical analyses of the sample. Barite sample with average particle size of -355+150µm was subjected to concentration, adopting jigging and tabling gravity separation as the concentration methods. Hitherto, based on quantitative and qualitative chemical analyses conducted, the sample was composed of about 36.2% BaO and 40.5% Ba, respectively; and also possessed an average specific gravity (SG) of about 3.85. Further, the qualitative analysis of the mineral products of jiggling and tabling indicated that jigging had a concentrate recovery of 130.98% Ba with SG increase of 11.2% while tabling had 89.81% Ba recovery with 8.6% SG increase. Assay and SG results confirm gravity concentration efficiency and thus, establish the barite from Azara-Nassarawa ore deposits suitable for certain industrial applications. This will serve as a tool and a step further towards mitigating existing problems or challenges in mineral concentration and processing of such deposits for industrial purposes.

Physical beneficiation of heavy minerals – Part 1: A state of the art literature review on gravity concentration techniques

“…Several researchers have conducted investigations on GC of certain HMs adopting the shaking table technique with a lot of reports in the open literature. For instance, a certain study was carried out by Nzeh et al [ 109 , 110 ], where wet tabling process using a Wifley shaking table was investigated on barite mineral ore, producing very positive and effective results on significant removal of impurities/gangue minerals for further downstream procedures as well as the recovery of high SG barite mineral for various industrial and oil/gas applications.…”

“…Subsequently, the lighter HM gangues rides on top of the riffles and will then be discharged at the lower end of the shaking table along with the flowing film of the wash water. Then, the recoveries of the HM concentrates will be achieved at the upper (un-riffled) section of the deck of the table [ 21 , 56 , 67 , [108] , [109] , [110] ]. The principle of separation involves the movement/motion of the HM particles (with respect to their sizes and SGs) in the slurry formed across the inclined shaking table, with backward and forward oscillating movements or motion to the slope at right angles.…”

“…The feed slurry that is introduced is thus subjected to a pulsating vertical force or movement and therefore flows over the (two) hutches or boxes [ 56 ]. Jigs are basically and theoretically consisted of production of tailings and concentrates of HMs which are also often regarded as the overflows and underflows, respectively [ 109 , 110 ]. High specific gravity (SG) of certain coarse HM grain particles often pass through the screens and rags into the hutches or boxes and they are removed subsequently as the mineral concentrates (underflows) whereas the remainders of the discharged slurry tend to flow into the tailings launder as the mineral tailings (overflows).…”

“…Conventional jigs have been utilized over the years in various applications of mineral processing and have thus produced several significant positive results. For instance, a certain study was also conducted by Nzeh et al [ 109 , 110 ], and a jigging process using conventional jigs was successfully investigated on samples of barite mineral ore with very positive results on the recovery of high SG barite mineral and significant removal of impurities/gangue minerals. However, this jigging system of conventional jigs has seemed outdated over the years with the introduction of enhanced jigging process system as well as other EGC techniques of physical mineral separation.…”

Physical beneficiation of heavy minerals – Part 2: A state of the art literature review on magnetic and electrostatic concentration techniques

“…The upgrade and process of HM concentrates as well as other low grade minerals up to technical and marketable grades may however involve the employment of basic physical beneficiation process steps or routes, such as magnetic, electrostatic, conventional and enhanced gravity or centrifugal separations prior to froth flotation process and/or downstream pyro-hydrometallurgical process techniques [ [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ]. Gravity separation is known to be the oldest and most common employed (pre)concentration process route, which is often conducted on most HM deposits and is usually focused on the rejection of low SG mineral.…”