Experimental Study on Dry Magnetic Separation of Kharganat Iron Ore

A sample of iron ore from the Kharganat deposit was crushed to under 3 mm and subjected to dry magnetic separation, yielding a concentrate with 60.28% iron content and 98.92% metal recovery. When the sample was further crushed to under 1 mm and reprocessed, a concentrate with 66.7% iron content and 95.88% metal recovery was obtained. Through wet magnetic separation, a concentrate with 67.71% iron content and 96.9% metal recovery was produced. The tests confirmed that the most effective method was wet separation after crushing to under 1 mm and grinding for 40 minutes. In terms of beneficiation technology for the deposit, two process schemes—dry and wet magnetic separation—were developed. It was recommended that dry beneficiation be used in production instead of the water-intensive wet method. The sulfur and phosphorus content in the technological samples met standard requirements. Both previous studies and new exploration results were used in the resource estimation. It was confirmed that using a 10% cutoff grade for resource calculation is economically efficient. The minimum thickness of ore bodies was set at 2.0 meters, and the maximum thickness of waste rock at 4.0 meters. Resources were classified into Measured (B), Indicated (C), and Inferred (P1) categories. The geological structure of the deposit is simple, with a stable ore body distribution. The ore body thickness ranges from 5 to 40 meters, with an average of 23 meters. The deposit is suitable for open-pit mining, and no water drainage issues are expected in the initial years. It is planned to build an open-pit mine with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons of ore, with the cost of mining one ton of ore estimated at 4,312.8 MNT.