• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2008

The characteristics of beneficiating kaolin mineral by liberation (selective grinding) and air classification have been investigated, comparing the grinding rates of ball mill and impact mill. The ore was ground using a ball mill and a impact mill to evaluate the grindability of the two grinding methods based on the constant production amount of fine particles in size less than 325 mesh. Then, the fine product was further separated into two fractions using an air-classifier and each fraction was chemically analyzed to compare the beneficiation efficiency of the two grinding methods. The chemical grade of kaolin mineral decreased as increasing the grinding rate of both the mills. particularly in the case of ball mill because of overgrinding impurities such as quartz and feldspar. In the case of the ball milling, the fine fraction less than 325 mesh was air-classified at a cutting point of $43\;{\mu}m$. The production rate of the air-classified concentrate was found to be 66.2 wt%, removing 5.3% of $Fe_2O_3$ and 34.6% of CaO. Under the same conditions mentioned above with the impact mill, the production rate of the air-classified concentrate was 64.4 wt%, removing 34.2% of $Fe_2O_3$, 67.6% of CaO and 25.0% of $TiO_2$. Therefore, our results indicate that impact mill is superior to ball mill in terms of impurity removal.