Beneficiation of quartz waste by flotation and by ultrasonic treatment

Abstract

Quartz is one of the most important industrial minerals used in glass and ceramic industries and high quality quartz are preferred. Impurities from quartz are usually removed by magnetic separation or flotation. This study is concerned to beneficiate the quartz from the quartz plant waste from Aydin-Cine region in Turkey by flotation and by ultrasonic bath treatment. The material with 94.8% Si is removed as a waste in the plant, after washing, grinding and classifying were applied. Flotation experiments showed that SiO2 content increased to 98.3% with 80% recovery after removing the -53 micrometer size fraction by desliming. When ultrasonic bath treatment is applied the SiO2 content increased from 94.8% to 99.2% after - 106 micrometer (30%) was removed as a slime. Results showed that better results were obtained with ultrasounic treatment. The aim of this study is to recover the quartz from waste and to add an economic value and therefore to reduce the waste stock for the environmental concern.