Recovery of Phosphors by Beneficiation Technology

Abstract

Phosphorous is indispensable in the phosphoric acid industry, fertilizers, and elemental phosphorus production due to its high economic importance. The way to successfully upgrade phosphate ore was based on a full understanding of its mineralogy, mineral surface properties, mineral distribution and liberation. Most phosphate ores are not suitable for direct use in the acidulation process because they have relatively low P2O5 contents and generally contain many impurities. Thus, low-grade phosphate ores must be pretreated to reach a suitable phosphate concentrate by the following beneficiation techniques: flotation, attrition scrubbing and deslming, electrostatic separations, magnetic separation, gravity separation and calcination. Flotation was predominantly used for the beneficiation of phosphate ores, while calcination could be feasibly used when the fuel energy cost was low and the water source was limited. The chemical composition and texture of phosphate ores should be considered when applying attrition scrubbing and desliming, magnetic separation and gravity separation. Commonly, some of the above technologies should be combined to obtain excellent results.