Magnetic separation and cycloning study in the recovery of metallic iron from granite waste

The aim of this work was to realize a comparative study between magnetic separations and cyclonic aimed the recovery of the metallic iron presents in the granite waste. Firstly, the waste characterization was performed by chemical and particle size analysis. A high intensity wet magnetic separator was used to perform the magnetic separations, however was only used the remaining magnetic field. The magnetic material obtained was submitted to another stages of separation, which was used a rare earth magnets and a ferrite magnets. Only variations in supply pressure were performed for the cyclone. Chemical analyses indicated that waste has 4.8% metallic iron, and the particle size analyses showed that 100% of obtained metal are smaller than 1 mm. Results showed that the most efficient method is the magnetic separation, which obtained a metal purity of 93% metallic iron. Using the cyclonic, a product with only 7.2% metallic iron was obtained.