Titanium is a rare silver-white transition metal. It is dispersed in nature and difficult to extract, with key features including lightweight, high strength, and resistance to wet chlorine corrosion.

Titanium is found in ores such as rutile and ilmenite. The extraction of titanium from these ores is known as the titanium mining process.

Two Main Titanium Processing Routes

• Gravity separation - Magnetic separation - Flotation

• Gravity separation - Magnetic separation - Electric separation

Related Equipment

Jaw crusher, ball mill, magnetic separator, spiral separator, spiral chute, dryer, vibrating feeder, vibrating conveyor, etc.

Titanium Processing Steps

1. Raw ilmenite ore (or rutile) is transported to a jaw crusher by a vibrating feeder for primary and secondary crushing.

2. The crushed material enters a circular vibrating screen for screening. Qualified ilmenite is sent to a ball mill for grinding.

3. The ground ilmenite pulp is conveyed to a spiral separator for classification and washing. Materials with unqualified particle sizes are returned to the ball mill for further grinding, while qualified materials are sent to a magnetic separator for magnetic separation.

4. The concentrate from the magnetic separator is sent to a dryer for drying and dehydration, resulting in dried concentrate powder.

    The beneficiation process of titanium depends on the material properties:

• Due to the higher density of titanium ore than gangue minerals, gravity separation can be used for pretreatment or roughing tailing.

• Magnetic separation is widely applied in the concentration of titanium-containing minerals.

• When coarse concentrate contains ilmenite, rutile, and non-conductive minerals such as zircon, electric separation is suitable for separation.

• Flotation is used for sorting primary titanium ore, especially fine-grained titanium ore.

Key Beneficiation Methods

1. Gravity Separation

Gravity separation is highly valued for its low cost and eco-friendly characteristics. Shaker tables are widely used in ilmenite ore dressing, especially in small mines, to obtain qualified concentrate. With the shaker process, the grade of ilmenite can reach up to 48.82% and the recovery rate exceeds 76%.

2. Electric Separation

Electric separation is popular in titanium concentrate production, and the electric separator is the core equipment for the electric titanium mining process.

3. Magnetic Separation Process

Magnetic separation includes weak magnetic separation and strong magnetic separation:

• Weak magnetic separation separates remaining titanomagnetite in magnetic separation tailings to ensure smooth subsequent processing.

• Strong magnetic separation discharges qualified tailings, increases the grade of titanium flotation feed, and reduces flotation load.

• High-gradient magnetic separators can effectively recover fine-grained ilmenite and remove some fine slime, achieving roughing and tailing of raw ore. Treating ore with strong magnetic pre-selection improves grade, laying a foundation for subsequent flotation to obtain final titanium concentrate. It can also refine concentrate, reducing the grade requirement of re-election concentrate and improving the overall recovery rate of the concentrator.

4. Flotation Process

Flotation is an effective method for recovering fine-grained ilmenite from primary titanium-bearing ores, and is sometimes used for coarse concentrate sorting. Before ilmenite flotation, sulphide minerals are first separated using a flotation machine.

Iron ore beneficiation plants mainly use mechanical agitated flotation machines. The aeration and agitation of slurry are realized by mechanical agitators (rotor and stator groups, known as aerated stirring structures). These machines have pump-like suction characteristics, capable of self-priming both air and slurry. With obvious advantages and flexibility in process configuration, mechanical agitated flotation machines are widely used in titanium mining processes and mineral beneficiation plants.

Titanium Mining Process Plant Equipment List