Evaluation Of Mining And Mineral Processing Methods' Impact On Tantalite Concentrate In Kenticha Open Pit Mine, Southern Ethiopia

Tantalite mineralization is located at Kenticha, southern Ethiopia and hosted by granitic pegmatite. The pegmatite has intruded the low-grade Neoproterozoic basement that forms part of the southern end of Arabian Nubian Shield. Ethiopian Mineral Development Share Company is conducting open pit mining and producing about 150 tons of tantalite concentrate annually. About 500 kg concentrate with similar to 50% tantalite is produced a day from 1200 tons of feed using different mineral processing techniques. Impact of dilution and ore loss on the recovery of concentrate was studied by collecting five samples, 30 kg each from the mine site and tailings. The results suggest that the effect of dilution is about 5% and ore loss in tailings is 13%. Impact of ore loss is significant compared to dilution. Ore loss can be improved by (i) adjusting the shaking tables, (ii) adjusting ore-water ratio irrespective of grain size; and (iii) dry magnetic separation.