METHOD OF PROCESSING POTASSIUM-CONTAINING ORES Russian patent published in 2015 - IPC C01D3/08 B03C7/00 B03C7/12 

FIELD: mining.

SUBSTANCE: method of processing potassium-containing ores comprises crushing the ore, ore leaching with the solution of hot unsaturated liquor, separation of halite waste from the solution of saturated liquor by filtration. The ore is crushed to a particle size less than 3 mm, heated to a temperature of 90-120°C with simultaneous dedusting the ore on the class of 100-200 microns. Then it is triboelectrically charged with the use of synthetic reagents as a conditioning agent, and then separated in an electric field of the free-falling separator with the formation of halite and the concentrate of potassium chloride. The concentrate of potassium chloride is directed together with the dust fractions of ore for leaching of potassium chloride with hot liquor. The solution of saturated liquor containing salt and clay sludge is fed to a two-stage clarification in settling tanks. On the first step, the pulp of salt sludge returned to the dissolving tanks is separated. On the second step, the clay sludge containing the salt sludge is separated. The clarified solution of saturated liquor is cooled with vacuum crystallization with the release of potassium chloride. The countercurrent washing of clay-salt sludge is carried out with its separation.

EFFECT: invention enables to reduce the number of halite wastes to obtain common salt and high quality potassium chloride.

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