South Africa is rich in iron ore resources, and many small and medium-sized iron mines still use traditional simple选矿 processes, resulting in low iron recovery rate and low economic benefits. A 120TPH iron ore dressing line in South Africa has achieved significant improvement after process upgrade, effectively improving the recovery rate and concentrate quality.
### Original Process Problems
The original production line adopted a "crushing + simple gravity separation" process, with the following problems: insufficient crushing fineness (particle size ≥15mm), leading to incomplete liberation of iron minerals; single gravity separation equipment, poor separation effect; no desliming link, fine mud affecting concentrate quality. The iron recovery rate was only 75%, and the iron grade of concentrate was 56%.
### Upgrade Plan
1. Crushing Process Upgrade: Add a tertiary crushing link, replace the traditional cone crusher with a high-efficiency hydraulic cone crusher, control the particle size of materials entering the dressing stage to ≤8mm, improving the liberation degree of iron minerals.
2. Gravity Separation System Optimization: Add a spiral classifier for desliming before gravity separation, remove fine mud in materials; replace the single shaking table with two sets of high-efficiency shaking tables, optimize the inclination angle and water flow parameters, improving the separation effect.
3. Auxiliary System Improvement: Add a concentrate purification link, remove impurities in the concentrate; install an automatic control system to realize real-time adjustment of process parameters, reducing manual operation errors.
### Upgrade Effect
After the upgrade, the iron recovery rate of the production line increased from 75% to 87%, and the iron grade of concentrate increased from 56% to 64%. The daily output of iron concentrate increased by 40%, and the annual output value increased by 800,000 US dollars. The production line operates more stably, and the maintenance cost is reduced by 20% compared with the original process.
Keywords: 120TPH iron ore dressing line, process upgrade, South Africa iron mine, iron recovery rate, gravity separation optimization
