Kaolinite Clay Beneficiation Process: Kaolin Processing

However, kaolinite clay is an inert, non-swelling, low-oil-absorption hydrated aluminum silicate mineral; it may contain quartz, feldspar, mica, iron, titanium minerals, etc., which are harmful impurities. Therefore, it is necessary to combine the beneficiation process for purification to be more suitable for various industrial uses. Kaolinite clay beneficiation mainly includes sand removal, iron removal, sulfur removal and other projects. There are two processes used in industrial production: dry and wet process. Usually, hard kaolin is produced by dry process and soft kaolin is produced by wet process. Specific kaolinite clay beneficiation processes include washing and sand removal, scrubbing, grading, gravity separation, magnetic separation, and flotation.
1. Washing and sand removal
First, the kaolin ore is stirred and dispersed in the presence of water and dispersant, so that the mineral is dissociated in the water in the form of granular monomers, and the particle size is measured in microns or even smaller. Usually, mechanical assistance such as drum ore washer, spiral sand washer, trough ore washer or drum screen is used to remove surface impurities.
2. Scrubbing (slurry adjustment)
Add appropriate dispersant into the stirring tank so that the raw ore, water and dispersant can be fully dispersed. While removing larger particles, the slurry of appropriate fineness can be prepared to meet the requirements of the next step of the mineral processing process.
3. Classification
Use the difference in size or density of mineral particles to separate minerals. Hydrocyclones, spiral classifiers or vibrating screens are often used for particle size classification, which can remove a large amount of coarse sand.
4. Gravity separation
Gravity separation mainly uses the density difference between the two to remove some coarse quartz and impurity minerals.
5. Magnetic separation
A method of separating mineral particles in a magnetic field by using the magnetic difference of minerals. Kaolin raw ore contains a small amount of iron-titanium minerals, which can be removed efficiently by a strong magnetic separator.
6. Flotation
It mainly adds a certain reagent in the flotation machine to adsorb fine impurity minerals onto the carrier, so that the impurities are separated to achieve the purpose of purification and whitening.