Unlocking the Full Value of Your Industrial Minerals
Beneficiation is the process of improving the economic value of an ore by removing unwanted "gangue" minerals, thereby increasing the purity and quality of the final product. For industrial minerals, this is absolutely critical, as specifications for products like silica, feldspar, or kaolin are based on high purity, brightness, and specific physical properties, not just bulk content.
Our Metallurgical & Process Testing services are designed to develop the most efficient and cost-effective flowsheet to "beneficiate" your raw ore into a saleable, high-value industrial mineral product. We conduct bench-scale and pilot-scale test programs to optimize various separation techniques.
This includes flotation (e.g., removing iron and feldspar from silica sand), high-intensity magnetic separation (to remove discoloring iron particles), calcination (to create high-purity lime from limestone), and gravity separation. Our detailed test work provides the critical data needed for flowsheet design, recovery estimation, and ensuring your final product can meet demanding customer specifications.
Key Beneficiation Activities
Flotation & Separation Trials
Our laboratories specialize in developing custom flotation circuits for industrial minerals, which often require precise and complex reagent chemistry. We conduct bench-scale trials to optimize reagent suites for separating minerals with similar properties, such as floating feldspar from silica sand or removing graphite impurities from carbonates. We also perform high-intensity magnetic separation tests to remove iron-bearing minerals, which is critical for achieving high-brightness and whiteness specifications for fillers and ceramics. This test work defines the most economical path to achieving your target product purity.
Thermal Processing & Physical Upgrading
Many industrial minerals require thermal processing to meet market specifications. We conduct laboratory-scale calcination trials to determine the optimal time and temperature for processes like converting limestone (CaCO3) to quicklime (CaO), assessing the final product's reactivity and brightness. This is combined with physical upgrading tests, including grinding and classification trials to achieve a specific particle size distribution (PSD), and de-watering studies to optimize filtration and drying. This integrated approach ensures the final product meets all chemical and physical specifications.
Key Benefits of Beneficiation & Process Testing
Maximize Recovery & Yield
Defines the most effective beneficiation path to recover maximum value from mined materials with minimal loss and waste.
Improve Product Quality
Achieves higher purity, brightness, and whiteness levels through optimized flotation, calcination, and separation processes.
Reduce Processing Costs
Optimization reduces reagent, energy, and handling costs while maintaining consistent quality and throughput efficiency.
Support Data-Driven Plant Design
Empirical lab data supports flowsheet design, project feasibility studies, and process control implementation.
Success Story
Flotation Testing Unlocks High-Purity Silica Sand
A quarry produced a high-silica sand, but it was contaminated with iron oxides and feldspar, making it unsuitable for the high-value glass-making market and only sellable as low-value construction sand.
BQCIS conducted a beneficiation study combining magnetic separation to remove iron impurities and flotation to eliminate feldspar contamination. Test results established an efficient circuit for producing high-purity glass sand.
The final product reached 99.8% SiO₂ with minimal impurities, meeting glass-grade standards. The client used our report to design a new processing plant, transforming a low-value resource into a premium industrial product.