Wet Process Plant and Magnetic Separation Circuit

Crushing runs in two stages. The primary jaw crusher takes boulders up to 800 mm down to about 150 mm; the secondary cone crusher reduces that to 10-20 mm, which is the right feed size for wet milling.

Crushed ore is mixed with water and fed to ball mills that grind the slurry to 100 mesh or 200 mesh depending on grade. Grinding wet is the critical step — water slurry liberates iron-bearing inclusions trapped inside larger grains and makes them available for magnetic capture. Dry grinding cannot do this, which is why dry-process material carries more iron.

The ground slurry then passes three stages of high-intensity wet magnetic separation. The first stage captures strongly magnetic magnetite, the second takes moderately magnetic biotite, and the third runs at maximum intensity for weakly magnetic iron-bearing minerals. Fe2O3 falls from around 0.4% in the raw ore to 0.08% in the finished K200.

After separation, hydrocyclone classifiers set the particle size, thickeners and filter presses remove water, and rotary dryers bring moisture below 1.0%. Recovered water goes back into the grinding circuit in a closed loop.

Flotation cells run alongside the nepheline circuit for potassium feldspar beneficiation, producing the SY101 and TX101 concentrates.