Thermomagnetic study of iron ore tailings from Quadrilátero Ferrífero - Minas Gerais/Brasil.

Abstract

Within the international macro-economic scenario, the mineral sector is seeking innovative and sustainable solutions for their productive processes. However, to be able to direct the tailings toward a determined technology, it is fundamental to know its characteristics and specific properties. The objective of the study presented herein was to extract significant information regarding the various ranges of particle size existing within the tailings from iron ore processing, with special attention to its magnetic properties. For this were used different technical characterization. The results demonstrate that the granulometric distributions of the samples vary from 100μm to values of less than 4μm, with a significant presence of iron oxides and quartz. The thermomagnetic curves generated permitted identification of the Hopkinson Effect, Curie temperatures for magnetite and hematite. They also show the magnetic susceptibility of each grain size range, an important information when considering magnetic separation.