Beneficiation Study on Barite Ore of Duddar Area, District Lasbela, Balochistan Province, Pakistan

  • Muhammad Arif Bhatti PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Ferozepur Road, Lahore-54600, Pakistan
  • Kamran Raza Kazmi
  • Rashid Mehmood
  • Abdul Ahad
  • Anila Tabbassum
  • Adnan Akram
Keywords: Duddar area, barite, beneficiation, tabling, flotation, leaching, recovery

Abstract

This study highlights the results of processing an indigenous low to medium grade barite ore
of Duddar area, district Lasbela, Balochistan, Pakistan. The ore was characterized by x-ray diffraction
technique. The gravity concentration and forth flotation technologies were employed to beneficiate the
ore in order to achieve commercial grade barite concentrate with economical recovery. The results showed
that flotation was the better method than gravity concentration to concentrate the barite mineral. A process
flow sheet was designed in the light of these experiments. The flotation tests revealed that barite concentrate
assaying 95.85% BaSO4 could be obtained with recovery of 82.06% from an ore containing 76.04% BaSO4.
The flotation concentrate was leached to get rid of objectionable impurities. The final leached barite
concentrate possesses 98.86% BaSO4 content and conforms to the specifications of industrial grade barite
concentrate.

Published
2017-02-28