Slime Beneficiation System at Kiriburu Iron Ore Mine lifts waste slime to +61% Fe
Kiriburu Iron Ore Mine (KIOM), operated by SAIL's Raw Materials Division in Jharkhand, was losing valuable iron ore fines as slime discharged to a slime pond. CFlo's Slime Beneficiation System now recovers those fines, producing a slime product graded at +61% Fe from feed of 54-55% Fe, with low-grade rejects routed to the mine's existing tailings thickener.
KIOM, operational since 1964 and transferred from NMDC to SAIL in 1978, has a Run of Mine processing capacity of 5 Mtpa, supplying iron ore lump and fines to the Bokaro Steel Plant. Its Ore Processing Plant ran three stages of crushing and wet screening with spiral classifiers. The classifier overflow, containing particles finer than 200 microns, formed slime that was treated as waste and disposed of in a slime pond, despite containing valuable iron ore fines.
CFlo implemented an optimised Slime Beneficiation System. A pneumatically actuated gate in the existing opening of Tank 3A, plus a tapping arrangement with a second actuated gate, gives precise control over slime extraction into a distribution tank for uniform flow. Two pumps feed a cluster of 17 high-performance hydrocyclones that classify the slime, followed by two wet magnetic drum separators that recover the magnetic iron ore fines. Two dewatering screens remove excess water from the concentrate, and a radial belt conveyor transfers it to the existing fines conveyor.
All discharge and receiving chutes carry manganese steel liners against abrasive wear, launders and pipelines handle slime and concentrate, and the monorail system was modified with a new electric-hoist monorail for material and equipment handling. The layout was designed to maximise recovery of iron ore fines while minimising operational bottlenecks.
By recovering valuable fines from slime, the mine increased overall production capacity, reduced the volume of waste slurry sent to the slime pond, and improved both the environmental and economic performance of the operation.
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