Laboratory Testing & General Mineral Processing Engineering

Laboratory Testing & General Mineral Processing Engineering

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Removal of calcite sand from silica sand (2 replies)

E
Erling Young
7 years ago
Erling Young 7 years ago

I am evaluating a silica sand for potential as frac sand. It contains 1-3% calcite. The calcite has a crush strength much lower than the silica and is therefore not desired. The sand size range is 0.1 mm to 1.00 mm. The calcite is uniformly distributed, size wise, in the silica. What are the best ways to remove the calcite on a large scale without impacting the silica?

J
JP Garnier
7 years ago
JP Garnier 7 years ago
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1 like by David

Hello,

As a chemist, if at all practical, based on the low calcite % I would leach out the calcite by a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid, the advantages are that it can be made in bulk, in heap leaching etc..

There might be some physical methods, flotation would be tricky as it is usually the other minerals that are floated away from calcite and the low % here would play against such a scheme unless there is a specific collector for calcite selective against silica.

Regards

JP

David
6 years ago
David 6 years ago
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Using reverse flotation and a tall oil fatty acid collector can recover carbonates and iron oxides away from frac sand. This reduces the “acid solubility” of the sand.

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