Caracterização tecnológica de rejeito em minérios pegmatíticos de Juazeirinho/PB

Abstract

The pegmatites represent an important source of industrial minerals such as feldspar, kaolin, mica and quartz. They also present a large gemological potential. The Borborema Pegmatitic Province has been explored since before the World War II. After this period, the exploitation of minerals of the pegmatites became a seasonal activity, with primitive methods of exploration, which resulted in substantial losses of mineral resources from that region. The present work has as focus the granulometric, mineralogical and chemical characterization of tailings of pegmatite from Juazeirinho, PB. The technological characterization of these tailings allows the definition of the best route to recover useful minerals. The samples, collected in two distinct places in the same area (Alto do the Belarmino and Mina Velha) were homogenized and quartered, separated by grain size, density and magnetic susceptibility. The generated fractions were submitted the chemical and mineralogicals analyses. Semiquantitative chemical analyses were carried through in X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. In the mineralogical analyses it was estimated the degree of liberation of the mineral dark phases. The results show that the mineralogy of the sunk minerals consists of spodumene, garnet, hematite, cassiterite and columbite-tantalite; while the mineralogy of the floated ones consists essentially of quartz, feldspar and muscovite. The mineralogy of the magnetic fraction comprehends essentially hematite and magnetite, while the non-magnetic or weakly magnetic fraction comprehends quartz, feldspar, micas and tourmaline among others. The Degree of Liberation increases with the decreasing of the grain size. The mafic mineral phases presented results ranging from 60 to 100% of particle liberation. The data point out to the possibility of reprocessing these tailings, aiming the recovery of cassiterite and niobo-tantalates.