Development of a magnetic hydrocyclone separation for the recovery of titanium from beach sands

Abstract

The recovery of titanium from very fine particles of beach sand of Sri Lanka has been investigated using conventional hydrocyclone and novel magnetic hydrocyclone separation methods. A new design for a magnetic hydrocyclone has been developed using a permanent rare earth neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet. Compared to the conventional hydrocyclone, this magnetic hydrocyclone was 5% more efficient in the recovery of titanium from the beach sand deposit with a commercial standard concentrate. It was also found that, for very fine particles, the titanium grade increased significantly (up to 56% TiO 2) when titanium-bearing minerals were separated using the novel magnetic hydrocyclone separation technique. Therefore, this type of magnetic hydrocyclone has potential to produce significant reduction in the processing time, thus saving energy and the running cost in an appropriate industrial application economically and efficiently.