Recovery of Titanium and Iron from Titanium Rough Concentrate in Malawi by Reduction Roasting-Magnetic Separation Process

Due to the complexity of iron and titanium minerals in Malawian, only low grade titanium concentrate can be obtained by conventional gravity separation, magnetic separation and electric separation. Through MLA (automatic quantitative analysis system of mineral parameters) and SEM (scanning electron microscope), the process mineralogy of titanium rough concentrate was studied. The results showed that the content of Ti-hematite and hematite in Ti rough concentrate was 16.33%, ilmenite content was 79.49%. It is difficult to effectively separate titanium and iron in titanium rough concentrate due to hematite formed by oxidation and alteration. Therefore hematite is reduced to magnetite by roasting and then magnetic separation is carried out in virtue of magnetic difference between magnetite and ilmenite. Iron and titanium in titanium rough concentrate can be effectively recovered and utilized. Iron concentrate and titanium concentrate were obtained by reduction roasting and magnetic separation process. At the same time, secondary iron concentrate and secondary titanium concentrate were comprehensively recycled. Fe content in iron concentrate was 56.71%, recovery rate was 13.50%. TiO₂ content in titanium concentrate was 49.10%, yield was 65.57%. Fe content in secondary iron concentrate was 51.08%, recovery rate was 10.29%. TiO₂ content in secondary titanium concentrate was 41.51%, yield was 10.57%。The tests solved the technical problem of separating ilmenite from hematite in titanium rough concentrate, and provided a technical way for comprehensive and effective recovery and utilization of Malawian ilmenite.