Hydrochloric acid leaching for upgrading flotation concentrate from a low-grade bauxite ore

Bauxite is the major raw material for alumina production, and its Al2O3 grade improvement or desilication is a necessary process for production of high-grade alumina concentrates from bauxite ores. In practice, flotation presents an effective method for the processing of such ores. However, it is not sufficient to produce a concentrate product with high Al2O3 grade from the ores with a single flotation process, especially from these containing abundant carbonate minerals. In this investigation, hydrochloric acid leaching was used to remove dolomite impurity from the flotation concentrate of a bauxite ore, to improve its Al2O3 grade and Al2O3/SiO2 (A/S) ratio. Effects of three dominant parameters on the leaching performance, that is leaching time, leaching temperature and hydrochloric acid concentration, were investigated in details. When these parameters were optimized, the aluminum concentrate assaying 67.41% Al2O3 with 66.84% recovery and 7.44 A/S ratio was obtained from the bauxite ore assaying 42.94% Al2O3 with 2.48 A/S ratio. It was concluded that hydrochloric acid leaching proved an effective method for upgrading of flotation concentrate from a low-grade bauxite ore containing carbonate minerals.