Pre-concentration of vanadium-bearing mica from stone coal by roasting-flotation

In China, stone coal is an important source of vanadium. The use of roasting–floatation for the pre-concentration of vanadium bearing mica from vanadium bearing stone coal was investigated based on its mineralogical characteristics. The results showed that the vanadium occurred in mica minerals and the main gangue minerals were coal, calcite, and quartz. The pre-concentration process comprises three key steps: roasting, desliming, and flotation. The coal was completely removed by roasting at 700 °C for an hour. Slime was concentrated and the subsequent flotation pulp was improved by desliming. Calcite was removed by reverse flotation and mica was concentrated by positive floatation. During the process, the grade of V2O5 was increased from 0.71% to 1.14%, and 46.18% of the tailings were rejected. The leaching rate of vanadium was increased from 30.49% of raw ore to 69.15% of the concentrate which was an increase of about 40% at the same leaching process. This technique may promote the efficient utilization of stone coal resources.