Tekhnogen Research and Production Company, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

V. S. Shemyakin, General Director, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, e-mail: shemiyakin@mail.ru
S. V. Skopov, Executive Director, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

Kyshtym Mining and Processing Integrated Works, Kyshtym, Russia:
V. G. Kuzmin, General Director, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences

Institute of Mining, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia:
I. V. Sokolov, Head of a Laboratory, Doctor of Engineering Sciences

The unique Kyshtym deposit of highly valued crystal quartz is almost the only stable source to supply production of new materials (quartz glass and special ceramics) in Russia. In Kyshtym quartz, mineral admixtures are distributed nonuniformly, which is a good pre-requisite for quartz pre-concentration at the stage of pretreatment. The tests on concentration of quartz using the method of X-ray radiometric separation took three samples of corse ore material with the sizes of –65+20 mm (hand dressing rejects and initial crystal quartz) and–20+5 mm (optical sorting tails). The samples were tested on X-ray radiometric separator SRF1-100 with a proportional gas sensor. It is found that the analytical parameters of X-ray radiometric separation, determined relative to most representative fragments of quartz material, varies in a wide range from 0.2 to 1 units. The content of such accompanying elements as iron and manganese in separation products at various separation thresholds ranges from 0.97 to 10.67% and from 0.016 to 0.23%, respectively. The authors propose a process flow diagram for pre-concentration of quartz using the X-ray radiometric separation method. The test results give grounds to suggest a possibility in principle to remove various impurities, such as iron and manganese, from Kyshtym quartz by X-ray radiometric separation. In order to determine optimal modes and efficiency of X-ray radiometric separation for quartz concentration and additional recovery of quartz from rejects of hand dressing and optical sorting, it is required to carry out fullfledged pilot testing in full-scale conditions at Kyshtym Mining and Processing Integrated Works.
The research was supported by the RF Ministry of Education and Science, Unique Project Identifier RFMEF160714X0026.

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