Studies on the effect of mechanically activating ilmenite concentrate using an attritor on its subsequent iron removal potential and kinetics of dissolution in hydrochloric acid

  Abstract   The effect of mechanical activation using an attrition mill on the particle size of an ilmenite concentrate and its effect on the ability of the concentrate for Iron separation during hydrochloric acid leaching and the kinetics of the dissolution process have been investigated. It was observed that mechanical activation in an attritor significantly enhances the dissolution of iron in hydrochloric acid while have a slight effect on dissolution of titanium. With the mechanically activated ilmenite using an attrition mill, leaching conversion at 90 oC reached to 80%. The kinetic data of leaching of mechanically activated ilmenite was found to follow shrinking core model. Mechanically activating ilmenite using the attrition mill was found to cause the activation energy of leaching to be decrease from 43.69 , found for samples leached without mechanically activated, to 18.23 .