RE:Could The Concentrate Be 50:50 Awaruite & Chromite?I should have pointed out that much chromite was likely lost during the previously employed Knelson gravity separation.
Specfic Gravities: Awaruite 7.8
Magnetite 5.1
Chromite 4.5
The chromite will not be lost, to the same degree, using only LIMS and flotation. The remaining question is in which product stream it will end up.
The chromite should be good for increased by-product credits, either way. And there should be a lot more of it without gravity separation.
AlternativeView wrote: https://tinypic.com/r/2nk7v4w/9 This link is to a snip of the elemental analysis from the first 10 holes drilled. Back then, before the focus on Davis Tube and magnetic separation, results were reported in a more complete manner.
First, you can see the reason why I suggested in an earlier post that cobalt is indeed present, and that if is present in the form of wairauite, it might perhaps be leachable.
More importantly, as a follow up to another earlier post where I suggested that it might be best for the chromite to report to the magnetite by-product in the flotation tail, in the interests of producing a clean nickel concentrate, in is interesting to note that nickel-in-alloy occurs in the ore at about the same percentage as chromium.
If the chromite floats with the nickel, once the magnetite is removed, I would anticipate about a 50:50 mix in the concentate between nickel and chromium.
This might be great for SS production, but not so much for leaching battery metals. So as I asked in my previous post, "Where will the chromite report?"