Kaolin is a clay mineral that has a wide application in the industry, depending on its purity. The quality of kaolin mined
around the world is depleting especially with depth and rate of mining. Consequently the usability of this mineral is
threatened by the presence of some inherent impurities. Beneficiation enhances kaolin applications; hence, it becomes
imperative to understudy comparative means of upgrading kaolin, for the process integration and optimization. The
amenability of using magnetic separation for removing the iron oxide and titanium oxide impurities from the Egyptian Kaolin
has been studied. Different variables affecting of magnetic separation process such as solid percent, magnetic field, matrix
loading capacity, and retention time were studied. The results indicated that substantial decrease in iron oxide (from 1.69 %
to 0.75 %) and TiO2 (from 3.1 % to 0.71 %) contents as well as improving iso-brightness (from 63.76 % to 75.21 % and
whiteness (from 79.85 % to 86.72 %) of the product could be achieved. |