ASSESSMENT OF PRECONDITIONS FOR ENRICHMENT OF VERMICULITE-SUNGULITE ORE BY PHOTOMETRIC SEPARATION METHOD

Abstract

The paper has shown the possibility for using the photometric separation of vermiculite-sungulite waste of openpit mining at the mine OOO Kovdorslyuda with a size of +10 mm, which contributes to increase of economic attractiveness for involving them in the processing and extraction of products with high content of vermiculite and
sungulite, which are natural sorbents with high adsorption, catalytic and ion exchange properties. Its use in environmental technologies allows to effectively reduce anthropogenic pressure on the environment in the operation areas of mining and processing enterprises, etc. The results of mineralogical and petrographic analysis of the test sample of vermiculite sungulite waste of open-pit mining at the mine OOO Kovdorslyuda with a size of + 10 mm have allowed to form 5 groups different in color, texture and composition of the composing minerals. The color palettes obtained for each of the groups and their numerical representations being the characteristics of the red, green and blue channels as well as the diffuse-reflected light fluxes from the surface of the studied samples recorded by the detection unit have allowed to estimate the possibility of separation by RGB-values. The authors have determined the differences between the maximum value of RGB indicators in groups No. 1 and 2 and the minimum value in groups No. 3 and 4 and transition group, which allowed to evaluate the application of lump-enriched vermiculite-sungulite ore by the photometric method. Laboratory studies have shown that using a combination of color characteristics on the R and B channels allows to select 35% of the lump material represented by olive, pyroxene, phlogopite and mica minerals into rock product.