Application of magnetic and electrostatic separation to enrich the anosovite product from reduction roasting of leucoxene concentrate from the Yarega deposit

In Russia, metallic titanium is produced by PJSC VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation, while titanium dioxide pigment is manufactured at the Crimea TITAN plant. These enterprises rely on imported ilmenite concentrates, despite substantial domestic titanium-bearing resources. Large reserves are located in the Yaregskoye and Pizhemskoye deposits of leucoxene sandstones. After flotation, the leucoxene concentrate typically contains about 50 % TiO2 and 40 % SiO2. Some quartz occurs as thin inclusions within the rutile lattice of leucoxene grains, while others appear as intergrowths or discrete grains. To make leucoxene concentrate suitable for titanium dioxide pigment production via the sulfuric acid method, the authors previously developed a reduction roasting process that converts rutile into anosovite. The next step involves enriching the resulting anosovite product to obtain an anosovite concentrate and a secondary valuable product—calcined quartz sand with a chemically active surface. A comparative assessment was conducted on the effectiveness of magnetic and electrostatic separation for anosovite product enrichment. Both methods were effective; however, electrostatic separation demonstrated greater selectivity, enabling more precise separation into anosovite concentrate and quartz sand with minimal yield of middlings. Due to the higher cost of electrostatic separation, the proposed approach uses magnetic separation as the primary method and electrostatic separation to recover valuable minerals from the middlings. A method was also developed to assess TiO2 and SiO2 content in separation products using photometric analysis with ImageJ software.The work was completed under State Assignment No. 075-00319-25-00.