April 2024

Volume 75    Issue 4

The Jiboia Ti-Zr heavy mineral sands deposit: A new discovery in the coastal plain of the Sao Francisco River delta, northeast Brazil

Gallart de Menezes, Ricardo Oliveira; Porto, Claudio Gerheim; Neumann, Reiner

In this study a full mineralogical characterization of titanium-zirconium (Ti-Zr) ore from the Jiboia deposit is presented. The main Ti, Zr and rare earth element (REE) carrier phases in six granulometric fractions are characterized in order to subsidize the development of a cost-effective processing route for the production of heavy minerals concentrate. The mineral resources are estimated at 31.5 Mt at 3.5 percent total heavy minerals (THM). The ore minerals are preferably concentrated in the 150 × 53 µm granulometric fractions, which represents 80 percent of the THM and only 27 percent of the run-of-mine (ROM) ore. Therefore, by cutting the ore to 150 µm it is possible to discard 73 percent of the ROM mass and recover 80 percent of the THM, including 100 percent of the zircon and monazite, which are the most valuable heavy minerals.

Full-text paper:
Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (2024) 41:395–411, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-024-00913-7

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