Dressing Tests --The Basis of Mine Beneficiation

Why should you do dressing tests for your mine ores?

Dressing tests are of highly significance to your beneficiation project. Dressing tests report is like technical feasibility analysis report of your project. it would tell you technically whether your ore is worthy of processing or not; and if it is worth processing , how can your processing achieve the best result.
It is possible that you find a mine site and you think it is high qualified mine ore, while after doing dressing tests, the result turns out to be that it is actually impossible to concentrate the ore to expected level.
If the ore is possible to concentrate to a certain level, how to concentrate it? What is the best processing flow? As you know processing natural ores is very complicated, even the same ore in different sites would appear different textures, beneficiation design should be based on specific science tests data analysis, rather than subjective experience.
That’s why you should do dressing tests. Even enhancing the recovery a little, you would profit much more. Otherwise, if you don’t do dressing tests and purchase the equipment without reference to dressing tests, in future, you would find the equipment cannot achieve expected performance, and that would be a huge loss and a waste of your investment.

What do dressing tests refer to?

Dressing tests are series of mini experiments done by professional labs. These experiments are to know the information of your mineral ore, processing technology and the data to fix the equipments including particle size, pulp density, PH value, chemical name and dosage.
The dressing test should include:grinding solution; grinding fineness; flotation concentration solution; collector type and dosage; depressant type and dosage; activator type and dosage; modifier type and dosage; PH value; flotation time; pulp density, etc for fixing the technological parameter of beneficiation flowsheet.

A Sample of dressing tests list(To take Iron ore dressing tests list as an example)

a. Spectral analysis & elements chemical analysis to fix the chemical composition of Iron ore
b. Iron ore phase analysis to fix the type of your Iron ore ( magnetite, hematite, siderite, limonite or other type)
c. The texture and structure and mineral composition of the ore; To know the valuable mineral of your Iron ore like the magnetite, marlite and the gangue which is associated with the Iron ore like, quartz, calcite, siderite, hornblende, actinolite, grunerite, etc.
d. The major metal mineral's embedded features; The Major element mineral's granulometric composition and distribution characteristics;
e. The different grinding size under low intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) - high intensity magnetic separation (HIMS) test for fixing the suitable grinding size.
F. Exploratory Test; Make exploratory Test for the ore and make foreshadowing for condition test; If your Iron ire is rich in the Ti2O3, Cu, S, we can give you the advice to expand the production in the future.
g. Condition test; Base on the research, we will doing the condition test include grinding solution; grinding fineness; magnetic separation and flotation concentration solution; collector type and dosage; depressant type and dosage; activator type and dosage; modifier type and dosage; PH value; flotation time; pulp density, etc for fixing the technological parameter of beneficiation flowsheet;
h. Completely open closed-circuit test: Base on the above test, choose the beneficiation technology process and the process parameters. The test index should be with repeatability, stability and facticity.
i. Product check: Make multi-element analysis for the concentrate and tailing; Make sedimentation performance test for the concentrate and tailing.
j. Designing the beneficiation flow-sheet:Base on the above test, designing the most suitable beneficiation flow-sheet,technological parameter and reagent system.
k. Issuing Report Issuing report base on the above tests.

Where can you do dressing tests for your mine ore?

Dressing tests can only be done by professional labs or institutes. it is better if you could find such labs or institutes at your local place.
International famous qualified institutes are : Outotech，Outokumpu，Alfred H Knight， Mintek，PROMET etc.
We can also recommend the famous lab in China to do the dressing test for you and you should dispatch the sample ore us by the courier.

How long would the dressing tests take?

It depends. In China, the tests would usually take around 2 months’ time.

Do you have difficulty in finding qualified labs for dressing tests?

If you have difficulty in finding qualified dressing tests labs at your local place, we could help you find professional labs in China to do the dressing tests for you. And we can help you get the most favorable policy.

Do you want to know more about dressing tests?

For more detailed information, please contact us directly.