Baranov V. F., Deputy General Director for Prospective Projects, Mekhanobr Engineering (Russia), office@mekhanobr.spb.ru.

The 13 most recent iron ore concentrating plant projects, being under construction or planned to be built in the near future in Australia, Canada, Peru and Brazil have been considered. The raw materials base, metallurgical results, processing plants flow sheets and equipment, as well as main performance characteristics of Mining Complexes projects are presented. Domination of high-pressure rollers crushing technology is noted, permitting to drastically reduce processing stage feed size, reject a considerable mass of final tailings prior to grinding without magnetic separation, reducing number of grinding stages, thereby significantly decreasing ore-preparation costs. Vertical mill application is planned at one concentrating plant for the first time in finely-crushed ore grinding circuit following high-pressure grinding rollers; at another large concentrating plant — Derric screens are planned for application instead of hydrocyclones. Reverse flotation application is noted as a main operation in processing of oxide quartzite. Vertical mills will be applied for processing products regrinding, concentrates will be filtered in press-filters, concentrates hydrotransport systems will be designed for a distance up to 750 km, final tailings will be dewatered by paste thickening technology prior to disposal.

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